AN 



EXPOSITION 



BY THE 

COUNCIL OF THE UNIVERSITY 

OF THE 

CITY OF NEW-YORK, 

RESPECTING THE LATE MEASURES OF RETRENCHMENT ADOPTED 
IN THAT INSTITUTION, 

AND WHICH LED TO THE DISMISSAL OF SOME OP THE PROFESSORS IN THE 

FACULTY OP SCIENCE AND LETTERS, 

WITH AN' APPENDIX. 





PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF A COMMITTEE OF TH7 

COUNCIL. 



-m » ' ■ 

• • • 




NEW-YORK: 

PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRE 

B ^ JOHN P. TROW— 36 ANN^TREET. 

18 3 8. ' 




A N 



EXPOSITION 



BY THE 



COUNCIL OF THE UNIVERSITY 

OP THE 

CITY OF NEW-YORK, 

RESPECTING THE LATE MEASURES OF RETRENCHMENT ADOPTED 
IN THAT INSTITUTION, 

AND WHICH LED TO THE DISMISSAL OF SOME OF THK PROFESSORS IN THiJ 
FACULTY OP SCIENCE AND LETTERS, 




PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF A COMMITTEE OF THE 

COUNCIL. 



NEW-YORK: 

PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
18 3 8. 



UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, 

October 6th, 1838. 

There are circumstances in the history of collective 
bodies of men charged with high and responsible duties, 
which demand of them an appeal to the pubhc, and a jus- 
tification of the proceedings which they have deemed them- 
selves bound by honour and duty to adopt. Especially is 
this the case when for a long period detraction and malevo- 
lence have been at work, to poison the public mind against 
them and their measures ; and when from the silence of the 
objects of these attacks, their unworthy purposes have been 
partially accomplished. The Council of this University 
hoped that their publication of the 19th of September last* 
would have silenced the clamors of the late Professors and 
satisfied the public mind. Nothing is more uncongenial to 
their pursuits and feelings than a controversy through the 
press. Towards the late Professors, they had individually, 
and as a body charged with their supervision, always held 
the most friendly relations. Betx een them and the Chan- 
cellor they had no partialities — each was equally esteemed. 
They conceded to them learning and talents adequate to 
their stations. None could regret more than the members 
of the Council, the unfortunate collisions which have recent- 
ly agitated the institution. In view of them they pursued 
the path which wisdom and duty pointed out. — They feel an 
assurance which cannot be shaken, that it was the path of 
truth and justice. 

It does not become the members of the Council who 
have fallen under the censure of the late Professors to speak 
much of themselves, but they may be permitted to observe, 
that they assumed the duties of their office without any mo- 
tives other than those which may properly actuate good 
men and good citizens, deeply interested in the civil, coxn- 

♦ Vide Appendix. 



mercial and literary character of the city, and laudably de- 
sirous of promoting, by all proper means, these true sources 
of her greatness and of her reputation at home and abroad. 
They were not stimulated by any hopes of gain ; many, nay 
most of them, had felt a deep solicitude in the University 
from the moment it was set on foot, and had contributed hb- 
erally of their means to promote its advancement. All of 
them had an ardent desire, that it might be all that its libe- 
ral foundation promised, and might extend its usefulness to 
all classes of the community and to the latest posterity. 
None of them could witness but with extreme regret any 
occurrence which should impair these high hopes, or threaten 
the slightest diminution of its resources or usefulness. 

To the Chancellor of the University is generally con- 
ceded the merit, by no means an unimportant one, of having 
conceived the noble plan upon which it is founded, and upon 
which it rests its claims to the public regard. By his own 
unaided efforts did he first set the scheme in motion, and to 
his influence and exertions are the public principally indebted 
for the many benefactions which were bestowed upon it 
and awakened it to life. Without these the splendid Uni- 
versity building which all look upon with admiration and 
delight, would not have been erected to adorn and honour 
our City. For a number of years, with untiring zeal and 
perseverance, has he devoted himself to this work ; sacrifi- 
cing his repose and comfort with no mercenary end in view, 
but solely for the pubHc good, in rearing an institution devo- 
ted to the cause of science and learning. Prior to the com- 
mencement of these exertions, and in the midst of a commu- 
nity somewhat jealous of the ministers of religion, he had 
long sustained the character of a sacred teacher of unblem- 
ished integrity and morale of distinguished talents, and of 
devoted yet unobtrusive piety. He had gathered around 
him a numerous and interesting family, and many warm 
and valuable friends, and had hoped when one great pur- 
pose of his life — the estabhshment of a great University — had 
been completed, to pass the remainder of his days amid the 



quiet delights of home and friends, and the useful pursuits of 
s, literary and religious life. The interests of the institution 
were in no ordinary degree his interests ; and with her glory 
and prosperity, or her failure and decay, his own were 
most intimately blended. 

Towards a Council thus constituted, and against such a 
Chancellor, the late Professors in the University have re- 
cently levelled all the shafts which their armory could sup- 
ply. This entire city has been deluged with their publica- 
tions. In the first place the Chancellor was made the object 
of their attacks ; and in the next, the Council and its Presi- 
dent, and a few of its members, became the subjects of their 
calumny and abuse. No weapon, which could be used to 
any useful purpose, has been left unemployed. The regard 
due to age and station, to the sacred character of a minis- 
ter of the gospel, to the feelings of his parishioners, and to 
his family and friends — to those whose dearest interests are 
bound up in him — have been entirely unheeded. And not 
only so, but finding that the Council, to whom these gentle- 
men were indebted for their official character and standing, 
were not disposed to look calmly on and be the instruments 
through whom destruction and ruin were to be visited upon 
one, against whom they had no charges, nor any proof of 
guilt, or of any thing worthy of moral censure, they changed 
the direction of their assaults, and attempted to involve a 
majority of the Council in the same indiscrimmate censure and 
disgrace. Happily for the protection of public as well as 
private character, there is always a sentiment of justice in 
the community, which, though it may be a while perverted 
by the industrious dissemination of falsehood and the con- 
cealment of truth, will candidly hear both sides of a contro- 
versy, and come to a just decision. The Council are aware 
that prejudices have been successfully aroused against them- 
selves as well as the Chancellor. They know they are ad- 
dressing a tribunal which has to some extent prejudged the 
cause. But they doubt not when the facts are well under- 
stood, that they will receive a decision, acquiescing in the jus- 



6 

tice and propriety of the measures which led to the dismis- 
sal of these Professors, as being demanded by the course of 
conduct pursued by them, by the respect due to the Council, 
and by the best interests of the institution through all com- 
ing time. 

Many of the allegations which the late Professors bring 
against the Council relate to matters with which they have 
no concern, and which are by no means of recent occur- 
rence. These have nothing whatever to do with the propri- 
ety or necessity of the recent reorganization of the Faculty of 
Science and Letters : about which alone the Professors as such 
have a right to ask the pubhc to decide. What have they to 
do with the original plan of the institution, or the man- 
ner in which subscriptions to its funds were obtained, or 
how or by whom paid, or with the prodigality or parsimony 
of the expenditures in erecting the university edifice ? Who 
authorized them to sit in judgment upon the acts of the 
Council, by which from time to time these proceedings were 
all approved and sanctioned? When were they appointed 
censors of the Council? What light is thrown upon the 
private grievances of which they complain, by a decision fa- 
vorable or adverse to the Council upon these several ques- 
tions ? Certainly none. They are, as the Council believe, 
only introduced into the warfare which has been commenced 
by the Professors, for the purpose of exciting prejudices and 
diverting the public attention from the real issue. 

It should not be forgotten, however, that when the Pro- 
fessors arrogate to themselves the right of judging upon these 
matters, their condemnation affects not the members of the 
Council alone, who have fallen under their displeasure, but 
many, nay all of those whom they have professed to regard 
as their peculiar and exclusive friends, and who as members 
of the Council concurred in the very measures now deemed 
so improper and reprehensible. They Hfted up no voice of 
remonstrance — suggested no plan which was better or more 
economical. These members of the Council may now well 
complain, that what they considered at the time as for the 



best interests of the institution, has been by their professed 
friends, unwarrantably condemned and held up to public- 
reprobation. 

But the observation must not be omitted, that the conse- 
quences of this improper and inexcusable interference by 
the Professors, are much more serious than even this. They 
profess some attachment to the institution, and deplore w^hat 
they are pleased to call its misgovernment. But w^hat ef- 
fect are their allegations, if they are to be credited, to have 
upon its prosperity and future usefulness ? Can these gen- 
tlemen not perceive, that in making these charges of wanton- 
ness, and extravagance, and irretrievable insolvency, they 
are warring against all the dearest interests of the institution 
itself, and preventing it from becoming what they once pro- 
fessed to wish it to be ? The heat of partizan controversy 
may have blinded their eyes to the unavoidable evils result- 
ing from their own recklessness ; but the community will 
not fail to discover them, and to place their authors in the 
unfavourable predicament which their conduct deserves. 

The only questions then between the late Professors and 
the Council, relate to the reorganization of the Faculty of 
Science and Letters (in w^hich these Professors were en- 
gaged), and to the charges which they assert they wished to 
bring against the Chancellor. They insist that the Council 
refused to examine these charges, and adopted the plan of 
reorganization in order to displace them, and to shield him 
from the consequences of his guilt. On the other hand the 
Council insist, that the system of reorganization originated 
upon the most deliberate inquiry and examination, long be- 
fore any difficulty arose between the Chancellor and 
the Professors ; was demanded by the state of the finances 
of the Institution, and had no connection whatever with the 
charges against the Chancellor ; and that they have always 
been ready and willing and have furnished every facility in 
their power to the late Professors, to have the charges 
which they professed a wish to prefer against the Chancellor 
investigated. 



The Council proceed to show from the state of the pe^ 
cuniary affairs of the institution and from the records of the 
Council, that the reorganization had its origin solely in a 
laudable desire on the part of the Council to bring its expen- 
ditures within its income, and at the same time not to diminish 
its usefulness, or abridge the course of undergraduate 
studies. 

During the recent commercial revulsions, it has been 
well understood that no public enterprise had suffered more 
from pecuniary losses by the failure of subscribers, than the 
University. Its funds to no small extent depended upon the 
contributions of the Merchants and other business men of 
this City, who, with a liberality which always characterized 
them, were foremost upon the list of its patrons. This class 
of citizens were the principal sufferers by the late calamities, 
and the institution suffered with them. For these reverses,, 
neither the patrons of the institution, nor the Council were 
responsible. The causes lie deeper. They who charge the 
fault upon either must be well aware that it is not justly im- 
putable to them. Under these circumstances the payment 
of former subscriptions could not be made, nor could any 
considerable additions be made to the resources of the Uni- 
versity by new subscriptions. The streams of individual wealth 
were for a time dried up. Instead of contributing to public 
objects, it required all the financial skill and ability of this 
whole community to preserve it from universal bankruptcy. 
The friends of the institution saw and lamented this sad state 
of things, but it was beyond their power to foresee or pre- 
vent it. 

At this pecuHar crisis in the affairs of the University, the 
Council made an appeal to the Hberality of the State for an 
endowment. The Chancellor was appointed by the Council 
the Chairman of the Committee in charge of this subject as 
early as the 18^^ November, ]936. It was hoped that the 
effort would be immediately successful. An application was 
made to the Legislature at the ensuing session, which was 
enforced by the gratuitous attendance of that officer for 



9 

nearly the whole winter at Albany, and by all the zeal and 
perseverance which characterize him, but finally failed. — 
The pecuniary difficulties of the Institution continued to in- 
crease, and the subject of retrenchment occupied much of 
the attention of the Council. On the 21st of November 
1837, the following Resolution was adopted : 

"Resolved, That it be referred to the Advice and Fi- 
nance Committee jointly to inquire, what other arrangement 
can be made as to the number of Professors employed, or the 
salaries paid them, in order still further to reduce the annu- 
al expenses of the University, and that they report at the 
next meeting." 

These Committees reported on the 29th of November 
last, and the following is an extract from the report : — " They 
are persuaded a change can be made in the number of Pro- 
fessors now employed in the under graduate course of in- 
struction, and without sensibly impairing the advantages of 
the student, while it would result in a desirable economy of 
means to the institution." 

These proceedings resulted in a reduction of some of the 
salaries. 

The application to the Legislature was repeated the ensu- 
ing winter, and the Council believe, principally through the 
influence and exertions of the Chancellor, was crowned with 
perfect success. An endowment of $6000 per annum for 
five years "and until otherwise directed bylaw" — equivalent 
to a perpetual endowment — was obtained, and by this means 
an annual and permanent addition made to its income. By 
the act conferring this valuable boon, this sum was " to be 
applied exclusively to the payment of the professors and 
teachers " in the University. This provision was made, as 
the Council are well assured, with the approbation of the 
Chancellor, and yet he is charged with hostility to the very 
Professors whose salaries he had thus in part secured to them 
beyond the contingency of loss. 

This act was passed on the 17th of April, 1838, — the 
Chancellor then being at Albany. On his return to the city, 



10 

and at a regular stated meeting of the Council on the 3d of 
May thereafter, he officially announced the gratifying intehi- 
gence in a written communication now forming a part of its 
proceedings. The records show that the follovi?ing mem- 
bers of the Council were then present, and participated in 
its deliberations : 

Archibald Maclay^ Charles Butler, 

Cornelius Baker, Brittain B. Woolley, 

James Ruthven, Waldron B. Post, 

Absalom Peters, James M. Matthews, 

James Milnor^ Richard T. Haines, 

Wm. B. Crosby, Wm. W. Chester, 

Robert Kelly, Myndert Van Schaick, 

John Johnston, Thomas Suffern. 

" The Chancellor in the communication alluded to, among 
other things, said, " It should also be considered as a measure 
of great moment to us, in view of further aid, from the state, 
that we at once bring our ordinary expenses, nearly, if not 
quite, within our ordinary income. 

" Representations adverse to our application met me while 
at Albany, which rendered it necessary for me to give strongs 
assurances on this subject to different members of the Leg- 
islature, and when our annual report shall be made to the 
Regents, if it should be found that our expenditures much 
exceeded our income, the result might be greatly detrimen- 
tal to our expectations for the future. I would hope, there- 
fore, that the Council would without delay, proceed to place 
all the departments of the Institution on a footing that will 
answer the reasonable desires of our friends in this matter. 
How this can best be done may be easily presented in a re- 
port drawn up with distinct reference to that object. 

" In reviewing the history of the University, it may well 
be considered a cause of congratulation, that so much has 
been accomplished and within so short a time, with no other 
aid than that of private munificence ; and now, when the 
state has allowed us to partake of the public treasury, indi- 



11 

vidual liberality so far from being diminished, ought rather 
to be stimulated and enlarged." 

" The necessity which exists for a further call on our 
fellow citizens has arisen, neither from improvidence nor im- 
prudence on the part of the Council : they have followed 
simply the dictates of an enlightened public spirit in under- 
taking the work which has been accomplished. It shows 
for itself, and it is owing to no fault of ours if we are with- 
out the means of paying off at once, the debts which are 
now standing against us. Had subscribers faithfully paid 
up their dues, enough would already have been realized to 
meet the more pressing claims ; and even allowing for the 
loss which has been sustained through those who have not 
redeemed their pledges to the Institution, new subscriptions 
might have been obtained to supply the defect thus created, 
had it not been for the unparallelled difficulties of the times. 
As things are, however, the duty before us is plain ; we must 
gird ourselves up to the w^ork." 

" I may be allowed in this connection to allude to an ar- 
rangement recently adopted by the Council, which has given 
me siiicere pleasure. It is the plan for receiving and dis- 
bursing moneys, and which will relieve me from taking any 
part in that service. It may be remembered when Mr. 
Tracy was appointed Treasurer, he accepted the office with 
much reluctance, owing to his feeble health and frequent ab- 
sences from the city. To relieve him I took much of the 
details of the office, and ever since that time, in order to 
meet demands for which no funds w ere provided, and which 
might have involved us in the expense and discredit of vex- 
atious prosecutions, I have continued to pay out, and have 
waited to be reimbursed when jnoney for that purpose might 
be obtained. As may be seen from the various reports of 
the Auditing Committee, this has kept me in advance to the 
Institution, to an amount averaging from three to four thou- 
sand dollars during the last few years ; the exact balance 
•due on the 21st ult. being $5489,97, exclusive of my person- 



12 

ai responsibilities on behalf of the University. A con,sider- 
able amount of these advances have been made from time 
to time in order to meet the urgent wants of the Professors." 

At the same meeting and immediately after the recep- 
tion of the communication from which the preceding 
extracts are taken, the following resolution was intro- 
duced, and being duly seconded, was unanimously adopted, 
viz : 

" Resolved^ That this Council do hereby express their 
gratitude to the Great Disposer of all events, for the endow- 
ment granted by the Legislature of this state, as a favour 
pecuharly important and seasonable for this University, in 
the present juncture of its affairs." 

" The following resolution introduced by Mr. Butler, be- 
ing duly seconded, was unanimously adopted, viz : 

" Resolved^ That the Council deem it an act of justice to 
their respected Chancellor to express their high sense of his 
untiring zeal and devotion in behalf of the University, and 
their congratulations that his efforts and sacrifices during the 
past winter have been crowned with complete and gratifying 
success." 

^' Ordered, That a copy of the foregoing resolution be 
delivered to the Chancellor." 

" The followinsj resolution introduced by Dr. Mathews, 
being duly seconded, was adopted, viz : — 

*' Resolved, That the Committees on the several Faculties 
be requested to report jointly, with all convenient speed, 
such an arrangement for conducting the various departments 
of the Universit}^ as may be most economical, and best 
adapted to bring the expenditure of the Institution within 
its income." 

It will be remembered that all this occurred at a time 
when harmony prevailed between the Chancellor and the 
late Professors; at all events when the Chancellor supposed 
such to be the fact. Their opposition to him did not mani- 
fest itself until a later period. The measure of retrench- 
ment to which these proceedings pointed^ was conceded to 



13 

be proper and necessary, and demanded by the present con- 
dition and future hopes of the University. Not only did the 
Chancellor and the Council concur in the desire to reduce 
the expenses of the University, but the late Professors as 
early as 16th October, 1S37, in a communication signed by 
Prof. Patton on their behalf, and addressed to the Finance 
Committee remarked, " From the time of the first establish- 
ment of the University down to the present moment, the 
number of students has been steadily increasing, the various 
departments of study have been provided for, while the con- 
fidence of the public has been constantly becoming stronger 
and more deeply rooted. The success of the Institution, we 
may confidently say, has exceeded the expectations of the 
most sanguine." 

" In the midst of this unparallelled success, while we 
numbered one hundred and fifty students, pursuing studies of 
the undergraduate course, and shortly after the salaries of 
the Professors had been raised to a higher rate than they 
ever had yet reached ; owing to circumstances which the 
wisest and strongest could not control, occasioning universal 
and unprecedented distress — from the 1st Feb. 1837, these 
salaries, which up to that time had been punctually paid at 
the expiration of each quarter, could no longer be paid at the 
time when they became due. The whole available funds, 
including the tuition fees, which, during the year 183G-7, 
had amounted to as much, if not more than during any pre- 
ceding year, were called for to satisfy other pressing claims 
on the Institution." 

" In this calamitous state of things, the Professors were 
called to bear their portion of the common distress, and we 
can sincerely say, that in the midst of embarrassments and 
trials to which most of us have been subjected, we had con- 
stantly at heart the welfare of the Institution in which we 
have been called to labor." 

They then speak of the trials to which they had been 
subjected by the non-paymxcnt of their salaries, and add, 
^' Let it not however be supposed from any thing that we 



14 

have now said, that we have been led to entertain the sHght- 
est doubt of the kindness and judgment of yourselves and of 
the Council, displayed towards us, and in the management 
of the affairs of the Institution. We assure you, gentlemen, 
we have no such feelings. Our present design is not to find 
fault — not to complain — not to call in question the feelings 
or the judgment of the Council, to which we desire always 
most respectfully to defer, but to lay our case before your 
respected body, confident that the mere exposition of the 
above facts will suffice to obtain for us all the relief we can 
desire." 

" And we beg leave to assure you, gentlemen, of our un- 
diminished respect for yourselves and for the Council, both 
collectively and as indimduals, and of our warmest wishes 
for the welfare of the Institution over whose destinies you 
are called to preside." 

"And we trust that in all future emergencies, we shall not 
on our part, be found wanting, in active and resolute zeal to 
promote the interests of the University. And, should cir- 
cumstances demand it, we hope to evince our readiness, both 
by labours and sacrifices, to co-operate with the Council in 
accomplishing all that the founders of the Institution, and the 
friends of science and literature have anticipated from this 
great enterprize" 

On the 12th of February thereafter, while the Chancel- 
lor was absent at Albany, the Professors in a communication 
to the Council, after again mentioning the amount of unpaid 
salary due them, and the embarrassments which they and the 
Institution then suffered from the want of pecuniary means, 
and after urging that some provision be made to relieve 
them, conclude as follows : " Is not some movement to our 
aid imperatively necessary ? We earnestly ask of the Coun- 
cil, whether the affairs of the University do not demand a 
thorough investigation and the application of an effectual 
remedy ?" The Council could not but consider this as ex. 
pressive of a strong wish that something should be done to 
render the income of the Professors certain and secure. — 



15 

They adopted measures accordingly, and the whole matter^ 
as has been shown, was referred to the Committees on the 
several Faculties. Those Committees consisted of the fol- 
lowing gentlemen : — 

COMMITTEE ON THE FACULTY OF SCIENCE^ 

JAMES MILNOR, D. D. 

S. H. COX, D. D. 

EDWARD DELAFIELD, M. D. 

ON THE FACULTY OF LAW. 

THE CHANCELLOR, ex officio Chairman. 
JOHN L. GRAHAM, 
J. PRESCOTT HALL, 
OBADLAH HOLMES. 

ON THE FACULTY OF MEUICINE. 

THE CHANCELLOR, ex officio Chairman. 
CHARLES BUTLER, 
JOHN JOHNSTON. 

On the 17th of May last, these Committees reported, that 
they would be ready to submit the arrangement contempla- 
ted, as soon as the Finance Committee had ascertained the 
debts of the University, for which provision was to be made 
during the current year. Prior to this time the Council had 
reduced the salary of the Professors from $1800 to $1500, 
and that of the Chancellor, by his own request, from f 1500 
to $1000. Even this retrenchment was unwillingly acqui- 
esced in by the Professors. 

The Chancellor was known by the Professors to have 
been, from the beginning of the embarrassments of the insti- 
tution, friendly to some plan to reduce its expenses. The 
one proposed by him contemplated a reduction of their num- 
ber, and an increase of labour from two to three hours per 
day, but no further decrease of salary. Whether this is the 
secret of their hostility to him, their subsequent acts will de- 
termine.. Of one thing the Council are well assured^ 



16 

they never openly evinced any, until the Chancellor had 
pledged himself to this course. 

After some delay, owing principally to the inability of the 
Finance Committee to complete their report, which was not 
submitted until the bth of June, the Committees of the several 
Faculties made their report, and as this embodies the reason- 
ings as well as the conclusions of the Committees, the Coun- 
cil give it entire. This report was submitted on the 2Gth of 
July, and at the same meeting Dr. Milnor, then officiating as 
Vice President asked leave of absence, and resigned his 
place in the CounciL 

REPORT. 

" The committees on the several Faculties who were re- 
quested to report jointly with all convenient speed, such an 
arrangement for conducting the various departments of the 
University as might be most economical and best adapted 
to bring the expenditure of the Institution within its income,. 
— beg leave to 
Report : 

That they have considered the subject submitted to them, 
and deem it of vital importance to the permanent welfare of 
the Institution. An arrangement of the various departments 
of the University, which will guard it against the evil of con- 
stantly accumulating debt, is equally necessary, in order to 
secure the confidence of the pubHc, and the comfort and 
harmony of all that are engaged in conducting its concerns. 
It is a measure which the Council owe to themselves, to the 
Professors, and to the Patrons of the Institution, who have 
heretofore aided it, by their contributions and who are here- 
after to be solicited for further liberality. 

Such being the importance of the measure contemplated, 
it is hoped that the sacrifices will be cheerfully made which 
may be found necessary to carry it into full effect. 

From the Finance Committee it has been ascertained 
that as the various departments of the University are now 



17 

conducted there is an annual deficit accruing against the 
University of $2620 : an amount which would soon in- 
volve the Institution in new embarrassments, even if the out- 
standing debts now due, had all been paid off. 

" The Finance Committee do not hold out much pros- 
pect of any considerable increase of income from rents as a 
subject for present calculation, should the operations of the 
Institution continue to be conducted under present arrange- 
ments — and although in past exigencies the fees of tuition 
have been increased, by liberal and benevolent friends who 
have payed tuition for poor and pious students, who would 
otherwise have been placed on the foundations of Scholar- 
ships, it would be unreasonable to expect such contributions- 
from them at present, as a permanent source of revenue ; the 
more especially as these are the very men to whom appeals- 
are to be made for paying ofi* the outstanding debts. 

" Your Committee therefore feel constrained to look upon 
retrenchment as the only alternative which can enable the 
Council to save the Institution from constantly recurring 
embarrassments. The inquiry is how and where can such 
retrenchment be effected, and with the least possible incon- 
venience. 

" Your Committee do not see that any reduction can be 
made for some time to come, either in the annual amount of 
interest on the debt of the University, or in incidental expen- 
ses ; and of course are driven to the necessity of inquiring, 
whether the system of instruction, and other internal inter- 
ests of the Institution, might not be conducted effectively at 
a less expense than is now required. On this point it is 
proper to compare some of our present arrangements with 
those of other institutions around us. — The only department 
in which such a comparison can properly be made, is that of 
the Professors who are employed for giving instruction in 
the under graduate or ordinary college studies. In these 
branches of education the University has a greater number 
of Professors than are found in any of our surrounding col- 
leges having the same number of students to instruct. In 



18 

Columbia College, in Union College, in Hamilton College, 
in Rutgers College, in Amherst College, and others which 
might be named, there is but one Professor of Languages, 
aided by an Assistant or Assistants. The University has 
two Professors, one of the Greek and the other of the I^atin 
Language. In Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry 
and their cognate branches, those institutions have two 
Professors, aided by Tutors or Assistants, according to the 
number of students. The University has three Professors 
in these branches. In the departments of Intellectual and 
Moral Philosophy, Logic and Belles Lettres, the University 
has two distinct Professors ; whereas in several other institu- 
tions the duties are discharged by one. 

" The Committee would find no fault with this arrange- 
ment, whether considered in itself, or in reference to the 
original design of the University. It must be familiar to the 
minds of many in the Council, that one object in founding the 
Institution was not only to provide instruction for the stu- 
dents, but to aid in giving character to the literature of the 
country through the press, either by original works pre- 
pared by the Professors, or by new and improved editions 
of the classics and other standard works on science published 
under their care. These labours it was believed would ma- 
terially aid both in the support of the Professors and in the 
usefulness and reputation of the University. Accordingly, 
the number of Professors w^as so arranged, as to allow them 
time, over and above what was required for the purpose of 
immediate instruction, to employ themselves in works from 
which such important results might be expected. As things 
now stand, however, it is evident, that this object, though de- 
sirable in itself must give way or be postponed ; and wisdom 
requires of us so to organize our Faculties, that we shall be 
able to pay promptly and regularly every Professor who is 
employed in our service ; and, at least for a time, to restrict 
their number to what other respectable Institutions as well as 
ourselves, may find necessary to ensure effective and ade- 
quate instruction in the branches which we profess to teach- 



19 

" The Committee have accordingly prepared the following 
arrangement for instruction in the undergraduate course ; 
and which they believe can be adopted without impairing 
the reputation of the Institution, or lessening the advantages 
of the student ; while at the same time it will not lay on any 
Professor a greater amount of labour than may be safely un- 
dertaken, and is customary in a sister institution in our 
city. For it should here be remarked that with the excep- 
tion of one day in the week, from the opening of the term 
until the Christmas Holidays, none of our Professors are 
engaged in instruction more than two hours each day ; 
whereas in the College referred to, three hours a day of in- 
struction is the period allotted to each professor. 
"The arrangement proposed is as follows — viz : 
"One Professor of Languages at a salary of 81500 00 

" One Assistant of do. 750 00 

*'One Professor of Mathematics and Natural 

Philosophy 1500 00 

" One Professor of Intellectual and Moral Phi- 
losophy who shall also instruct in History - - - 1500 00 
" One Professor of Chemistry, Botany, Geology 

and Mineralogy -- 1000 00 

" One Professor of Evidences of Revealed Reli- 
gion and Belles Lettres 1200 00 

" By comparing this arrangement with that now existing, 
it may be seen, that there will be an annual saving to the 
Institution of $2050, and at the same time, as will be seen 
hereafter, without the necessity of lessening the advantages 
of the student or overburdening any instructor. The Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry would have his duties increased ; but if 
so, his relation to the Faculty of Medicine would render his 
connexion wtih the University more profitable to him ; as it 
is intended, that the same Professor of Chemistry shall act 
in the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Science and 
Letters : nor under all the circumstances of the case do the 
Committees hesitate to recommend, that this Professor should, 
at least for a time, take some of the branches — ^as Electro- 



20 

Magnetism, &c. and which have heretofore been taught by 
the Professor of Natural Philosophy ; though it might lead 
him to abbreviate his chemical course. 

" In this connexion also it is proper to call to mind one of 
the advantages originally expected to result from the nature 
of our Institution, embracing as it does various Faculties 
under the saitie general authority. There are several stu- 
dies taught iii the Faculties of Lavv^ and of Medicine, such as 
* The Law of Nature and of Nations ;* * The general principles 
of Physiology and Comparative Anatomy ;' which will give 
important variety to the studies of a student in the senior 
year of the undergraduate course, and which can be furnished 
to our students, so as in some degree to dispense with that 
amount of labour usually required from Professors in Colle- 
ges, where there is no Faculty of Law or of Medicine. It 
is both duty and wisdom on the part of the Council to avail 
themselves of these advantages arising from their peculiar 
organization ; and the Committees on the Faculties of Law 
and of Medicine are fully assured, that the Professors in these 
Faculties will cheerfully concede to the Council, every facil- 
ity of this kind, which could promote the general interests of 
the Institution. With these advantages, taking the whole 
scheme as now proposed, and comparing it with that of other 
Institutions which provide for under graduate instruction, 
the opportunities which will be furnished to the Students of 
the University would be unusually ample. 

"There is another measure of retrenchment which the 
Committees think might be adopted without prejudice to 
any interests of the Institution. It should be remembered 
that the Library of the University is yet but small, not to 
exceed two thousand volumes ; yet the Council are at pres- 
ent paying a Librarian a salary of $300,00 per annum, with 
the privilege of an office, fuel, &c., which may be valued at 
one hundred more. They are also paying the Curator of 
the Reading Room $250,00 — the Library and Reading 
Jloom being in separate apartments. 

^TheBurs.^r and Secretary receives asalary of $1000,00 



21 

per annum, with the privilege also of an office, fuel, &c., 
valued at ^100,00. This makes a total of annual expense 
for these offices of $1750,00. Should they be combined in 
the same individual, and the Library and Reading Room 
placed in the same apartment as in former times, it is be- 
lieved that the whole service might be obtained for the 
University at an expense of not more than $600,00 per 
annum, together w^ith the privilege of an office ; and thus 
make an annual saving of $1050,00, which added to #2050,00 
previously ascertained, would make a saving of thirty- 
one HUNDRED dollars aunually. It is for the Council to 
decide whether such a change is not desirable. Should it 
be made, the Committees would recommend that the Cabi- 
net of minerals, &c., should be transferred to the apartment 
now occupied as a Reading Room. Indeed, should the plan 
now proposed be adopted, it would leave, in addition to the 
room now occupied for the Cabinet, two or three other val- 
uable apartments to be rented ; thus adding considerably to 
the income now realized from that source : and, on a review 
of the whole, it will be seen, that the saving to the Institution 
on the score of salaries being thirty-one hundred dollars, and 
the gain on the score of rents being (say) four hundred dol- 
lars, would make in all thirty-fi'De hundred dollars in favour 
of the Treasury from year to year — a sum which would not 
only meet the deficit reported by the Finance Committee, but 
would both provide against unforseen contingences, and also 
furnish something towards the salary proposed to be allowed 
for the Professor of Oriental Languages and Literature — an 
object which the Chancellor deems of so much importance, 
that in order to secure it^ he proposes to throw off" $500 from 
his own salary, or to credit the University with that amount 
as a subscription to its funds. 

" The Committee accordingly submit for consideration 
the following resolutions : — 

"1st. Resolved, That it is essential to the permanent 
welfare of the University so to arrange the plan of instruct 
tion, as to bring the ordinary expenses within the ordinary 
income of the Institution, 



22 

" 2d. Whereas the law of the State appropriating 
$6000 per annum, directs that it be used only for the payment 
of professors and other teachers — therefore 

"Resolved, That the resolution of Council, passed October 
1st, 1833, directing the fees of tuition to be reserved and 
especially appropriated towards payment of the salary of the 
Professors, be and hereby is rescinded ; to take effect as to 
any future indebtedness for salaries. 

"3d. Resolved, That the scheme of undergraduate study 
ought to be so arranged, as to require from each Professor 
three hours per day in the business of direct instruction. 

" 4th. Resolved, That until the further order of this Coun- 
cil, the Faculty of Letters and Science for instruction in 
undergraduate studies, shall conisst of the following Profes- 
sorships, viz: — 

'^ One Professor of Languages. 

" One Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. 

" One Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy and 
Logic, who shall also give instruction in History. 

" One Professor of theEvidences of Revealed Religion and 
Belles Lettres. 

"One Professor of Chemistry, Geology, Mineralogy and 
Botany. 

"And one Assistant Professor of T languages, who shall 
also aid in the other studies of the Freshman year as occa- 
sion may require. 

" 5th. Resolved, That a Treasurer, without salary, be 
appointed, and also an Assistant ; and that the duties of 
such Assistant-Treasurer, Secretary of the Council, Libra- 
rian, and Curator of the Reading Room, be discharged by 
one and the same person, and at a salary of $000 per an- 
num, together with the privilege of an office and fuel. 

" 6th. That all previous enactments or resolutions of 
Council, which may be inconsistent with the above arrange- 
ments, be and hereby are rescinded. 

" Respectfully submitted, 
" J. M. MATHEWS, Chancellor. 

*' New York, July, 1838." 



23 

This report continued before the Council without any 
definite action upon it, until the 30th of August, when the res- 
olutions appended to it were adopted ; and the Council can- 
not doubt, that situated as the University was, the measure 
was demanded by every consideration of interest and duty. 

Prior to this time, the Professors, instead of confining 
themselves within the sphere of their official duties, had com- 
menced their attacks upon the Chancellor through the Com- 
mittee of Science and Letters, and a committee had been 
appointed to receive charges against him and investigate 
them. The history of this will be given in its proper place. 
To show that the plan of retrenchment had not its origin in 
any unkindness towards the Professors, or any desire to re- 
move them from their places in the University, though such 
was its legal effect, the Council also refer to their subse- 
quent proceedings as entirely conclusive. For the purpose 
of retaining some of them under the new arrangement, a 
committee was appointed at the same meeting to confer with 
them, and communicate the steps taken by the Council, and 
to receive the applications of candidates for the Professor- 
ships as thus constituted. This Committee appointed a time 
for meeting the Professors, and apprised them of the same, 
through the Secretary of the Council ; but none of them ap- 
peared except Professor Mason. The Committee thereupon, 
in order to prevent all misapprehension, afterwards sent a 
copy of the resolution under which they acted to the late 
Professors. To this communication they received no an- 
swer. These facts were reported to the Council on the 1 7th 
of September last, and then, for the first time, nominations 
for the vacant Professorships were made ; the late Profes- 
sors never having signified a wish to be retained under the 
new order of things. They treated the Council and its ef- 
forts to retrieve the aflfairs of the University with contempt, 
and on the eighth of September made an appeal to the pub- 
lic in an elaborate pamphlet. They followed this with their 
** Card," giving notice that they would, notwithstanding the 
proceedings of the Council, give their ordinary course of in«» 



24 

struction as Professors in the University at the ensuing term ; 
"awe? that no act of the Council had changed their standing J*" 
They further insisted, that by appointing them to office, the 
Council had lost the power of adopting any plan for the good 
of the University — that the ordinary power of legislation 
was suspended, if it at all interfered with their offices, and 
that they could not be displaced for any thing other than 
criminal delinquency — propositions as absurd, as they are 
contrary to experience, and the welfare of literary and polit- 
ical bodies. About the same time an article highly abusive 
of the Chancellor, and reflecting upon the Council, made its 
appearance in the Madisonian at Washington, and wa« cop- 
ied into a journal in this city, devoted to their interests. — 
Thus the late Professors manifested a determination to con- 
sider the Institution as under their control, and seemed 
resolved at all hazards, to retain their places and set the 
Council at defiance. 

The Council with a proper regard to its own dignity, and 
conscious of the rectitude of its proceedings, could not over- 
look these acts of the late Professors, or fail to notice them 
in a manner compatible with their duty. It was an example 
of insubordination and rebellion against the constituted au- 
thority of the Institution, which demanded immediate rebuke. 
Accordingly, on the eighteenth of September, the following 
preamble and resolution was introduced by the President of 
the Council and adopted : 

" Whereas doubts are entertained by some persons as to 
the effect of the late acts of the Council, reorganizing the 
Faculty of Science and Letters, on the relation of H. P. 
Tappan, R. P. Patton, J. Proudfit, C. M. Hackley, W. A. 
Norton, L. C. Beck and L. D- Gale to the University : — And 
whereas in view of the late publications of the above named 
gentlemen in reference to the Council and the University, 
manifesting open disregard to the authority and proceedings 
of the Council, it has become highly desirable that the senti- 
ments of the Council should be distinctly expressed on the 
subject ; therefore, 



25 

« Resolved, That Messrs. H. P. Tappan, R. B. Patton, J. 
Proudfit, C. W. Hackley, W. A. Norton, L. C. Beck, and 
L, D. Gale, be and are hereby declared to be no longer Pro- 
fessors in the University." 

At the same meeting the following preamble and resolu- 
tion were also introduced by the President of the Council : — 

" Whereas in view of the present necessities of the 
University, and the measures of retrenchment and econ- 
omy contemplated by the Council in their recent proceed- 
ings, it is desirable further to reduce the responsibilities of 
the Institution ; therefore — 

Resolved, That the salaries of the following Professors 
be hereafter fixed as follows, viz : 

Professor of Languages, ^ 

Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, | at $1000 
Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, r'per annum 

Professor of the Evidences of Revealed Religion | each, 

and Belles Lettres j 

Professor of Chemistry at the rate of $750 per annum. 

— said Professors in addition to receive each 87 annually 
from each student under their charge respectively, excepting 
such as are on the foundations of free scholarships ; and the 
Assistant Professor to receive $5 for every student under 
his charge, excepting those on such foundations. 

The Ayes and Nays were taken on this resolution, and 
were as follows : 

Ayes — Messrs. Tallmadge, Mathews, Woolsey, Van 

Schaick, Johnston, Haines, Kelly, Holmes, Suffern, 

Hall, Graham, Ruthven, Baker, Griswold, Crosby, 

Woodhull, Post, Borrow^e, Woolley, Rowland, 

Chester, Comstock, Jeremiah, and Delafield, — 24. 

J^ays — Messrs. Cox and Peters, — 2. 

The Professors continued to regard the above Resolution 

of the Council declaring their dismissal, as not putting 

an end to their connection with the Institution, and 

obtained and published a legal opinion to that effect. 

They insisted that their removal must be effected with more 

unanimity, and required nineteen votes. To remove all 



26 

doubts, a resolution like the preceding was unanimously 
passed on the 29th of September, and by nineteen votes. 

At this meeting the following members of the Council 
were present: — 

James Tallmadge, President. 
John Johnston, James M. Mathews, 

Wm. W. Chester, Wm. Borrowe, 

Sam. S. Howland, Wm. McMurray, 

Thomas W. Tucker, George Griswold, 
J. Prescott Hall, James Ruthven, 

E. D. Comstock, Myndert Van Schaick, 

Wm. Curtis Noyes, Waldron B. Post, 
Obadiah Holmes, B. L. Woolley, 

Wm. B. Maclay, Thomas SufFern. 

Thus was completed the measure of retrenchment which 
<2ie Council felt themselves obliged to adopt. That it led to the 
severance from the Institution of the late Professors, was not 
the fault of the Council. They never manifested a disposi- 
tion to make a single sacrifice for its benefit, but held to their 
places with an unusual tenacity. The Council do not doubt 
that the responsibility of this necessary and unavoidable step 
will be placed upon those to whom it properly belongs. If 
these gentlemen were the only persons who could give a 
thorough course of literary and scientific instruction, their 
loss would indeed be a great public calamity. Fortunately 
for the youth of our country, the interests of education, and 
oi the human race, there are others whose qualifications are 
in no respect inferior to theirs, and in whom pubHc confi- 
dence may safely be reposed. Such have been elected by 
the Council and are now engaged in giving instruction, not- 
withstanding the efforts of the late Professors to prevent it. 

The only remaining topic immediately connected w^ith 
the late professors, which the Council deem it necessary to 
notice, is that relating to the charges against the Chancellor, 
jand ihe alleged refusal of the Council to investigate them. — 
This the Council beheve may be disposed of in a manner 
equally satisfactory with the preceding. 

The Council had no knowledge that the preferring of 



27 

charges against that officer was in agitation until the four' 
teenth of June. By a reference to dates it will be seen, that 
this was more than a month after the Chancellor had recom- 
mended retrenchment, and when that subject had been the 
whole of that time before the Committees of the several Fac- 
ulties. The charges against the Chancellor then first began 
to be whispered about. If any thing had been said about 
them before it was confined to the Professors and their 
friends. It is idle for them to pretend that the plan of reor- 
ganization was adopted to smother the charges against the 
Chancellor. The one had been recommended and in part 
matured, before the other was conceived. 

These charges were first brought to the notice of the 
Council in a most extraordinary manner at a meeting on the 
fourteenth of June. The Chancellor then presented a re- 
quest to be permitted to visit Europe on account of impaired 
health ; proposing to surrender his office into the hands of 
the Council, and in the event that the Council thought best 
he should retain it, to relinquish all claim to salary during 
his absence. The subject was referred to a committee con- 
sisting of Messrs. J. L. Graham, Johnston, Chester, Borrowe, 
Suffern and Tallmadge. Immediately after this it was sug- 
gested that the Committee on Science and Letters, of which 
Dr. Milnor was Chairman, were in possession of a document 
which it would be necessary to place before the Commit- 
tee, and it was insinuated that it strongly implicated the 
Chancellor. An effi)rt was made to procure it, and finally 
upon motion of Mr. Graham it was reluctantly produced. — 
It is dated the thirtieth of May, and was delivered to Dr. 
JMilnor on the fourth of June, (as admitted by the Professors 
in their pamphlet) the day prior to a regular meeting of the 
Council, which was held, and at which every member of 
that Committee (Messrs. Milnor, Cox, and E. Delafield) was 
present. This communication contained nothing specific, 
but simply expressed a want of confidence on the part of the 
late Professors in the Chancellor, and affirmed, that in their 
opinion he had lost that of the public. It was however ira- 



28 

mediately referred to the committee on the subject of the 
Chancellor's going to Europe. 

The manner in which this communication was received 
by the Committee of Science and Letters, and the extent of 
power under which they claimed a right to entertain it, is as 
extraordinary as their conduct, after it was placed in their 
possession. This committee as its title implies, are charged 
with the care of the course of Scientific and Literary instruc- 
tion in the University, and by a resolution of the Council, it 
is their duty " to devise and execute in co-operation with the 
Faculty, plans for the enlargement and improvement of each 
particular department, and to report quarterly to the Council 
the condition of each department, and such other facts and 
circumstances as they may deem important to be communi- 
cated ; and to nominate suitable persons to fill any vacancy 
that may occur in any department of the Faculty." 

It is conceded by the late Professors in all their publica- 
tions, that they had no legal right to become the accusers of 
the Chancellor. They are forbidden to become such by the 
laws of the State. Did they, or does any reasonable man 
really imagine, that this resolution conferred this right upon 
them in opposition to the law ? Or will any one contend, 
that it authorized the committee to receive accusatory docu- 
ments from any source, against the head of the Institution or 
any of its officers? No such thing was contemplated by the 
resolution. Such a construction does violence to its letter 
and its spirit. It places the council in the ridiculous attitude, 
of appointing two learned Divines and one Doctor of Medi- 
cine, a standing committee of impeachments ; as if there was 
nothing more worthy of their attention, or more befitting their 
attainments than an occupation suitable only to a criminal 
court. The Council certainly intended to confer no such 
power. They were not aware, at least at the time of the 
adoption of that resolution, that there were any persons con- 
nected with the Institution of a character to make such a 
tribunal necessary. The reception of this paper by the 
Committee was at least a misconception of the scope of their 



29 

duties. If intentional and part of a system, it was a gross 
and cruel usurpation of authority. 

It should be remarked in this place that this document 
of the Professors, contains one very peculiar feature. After 
asserting that the Chancellor did not possess the pubhc con- 
fidence and had forfeited their own, which of course is speak- 
ing o{ public opinion, they say, that " truth and the interests 
of the institution no longer permit its concealment." These 
gentlemen must possess some peculiar property, if they are 
able to " conceal" public opinion. It would be equally sin- 
gular if they had become its exclusive depositaries. 

The Council, as soon as these general and indefinite alle- 
gations w^ere received, were anxious to give the fullest op- 
portunity for inquiry and investigation. It is obvious, 
however, that such charges could neither be proved or 
disproved. On the nineteenth of July the Committee to 
whom they were referred, made a report, declaring among 
other things, that the charges were so general they did not 
admit of examination. Thereupon Dr. Milnor in behalf of 
the Professors announced, that he had a further communica- 
tion from the same Professors, with the exception of Profes- 
sor Mason, on the same subject, and in which they expressed 
a desire to be heard by the Council relative to the charges 
against the Chancellor. The w^iole subject was then refer- 
red back to the same Committee by the following resolution. 
*' Resolved, That the above named report, and the two 
communications from the Professors, be referred to the 
committee, of w^hich Mr. Graham is chairman ; and that 
committee investigate the charges made against the Chancel- 
lor by the Professors, with power to take proofs in writing, 
and report the facts to the Council for their decision, with- 
out comment or opinion by the committee. Copies of the 
charges to be served upon the Chancellor ten days before 
the testimony is taken." 

Dr. Milnor was proposed to be added to this Committee, 
but he declined, and Mr. Kelly was appointed in his stead. 
That Committee by their chairman, Mr. Noyes (who had 



30 

been substituted in the place of Mr. Graham who declined 
acting), made their report on the twenty -seventh of Septem- 
ber. The Council fully concurred in its correctness, and 
now place it before the public as explanatory of their own 
course as well as that of the Committee. 

The Committee Report, " That they have, in obedi- 
ence to the directions of the Council, had the several mat- 
ters recommitted to them, again under consideration, and 
have given to them that attentive examination which their 
importance deserves. That having as early as the 19th of 
July last, agreed upon the report then made by the commit- 
tee to the Council, nothing has since, officially or otherwise, 
come to their knowledge to induce them to modify or change 
their former conclusions. 

" A brief history of what has transpired since your com- 
mittee was again charged with the subject now under con- 
sideration, is believed to be all that is necessary to a proper 
understanding of the course pursued by the committee and 
by the late professors. 

" On the 30th of July last, the former chairman of your 
committee addressed a note to each of the individuals (then 
Professors), who signed the last communication, informing 
them of the appointment of your committee, and requesting 
that the charges vv^hich they wished to prefer against the 
Chancellor might be presented at an early day, and stating 
the readiness of your committee, in pursuance of their in- 
structions, to examine into them without delay. An answer 
from the committee of the late professors was soon received 
by the former chairman of your committee, stating, that some 
of the Professors were then absent from the city, and that 
they were consequently unable to prepare the charges ; but 
that they were expected to return in a few days ; immediately 
after which the communication of your committee should re- 
ceive early attention. No further action of your committee 
was therefore had for several days, expecting soon to have 
the charges placed before them, and to commence their in- 
vestigation. At the end of this time, however, a further 



31 

communication was receieved from the committee of the late 
Professors, declining to furnish the charges against the Chan- 
cellor to your committee ; and alleging as a reason therefor, that 
they had consulted counsel, and were advised, that no per- 
sons other than members of the Council could legally prefer 
charges against an officer of the institution ; and suggesting 
their intention to make them directly to the Council through 
J. P. Hall, Esq. one of its members, who had consented to 
present them. Your committee, by this act of the Profes- 
sors, were prevented from discharging the duty imposed up- 
on them by the resolution of the Council. No charges being 
before them, of course none could be investigated. 

" Your committee cannot but regard the course thus 
taken by the late Professors as novel and extraordinary. — 
They first make general and indefinite allegations against 
the Chancellor. These were considered, as your committee 
suppose very properly, highly objectionable — being, from 
their very nature, incapable of proof, and equally incapable 
of disproof from their generality. Upon this being suggest- 
ed to the Professors, they tacitly admitted the vahdity of the 
objection, and professed a desire to make those which should 
be specific and tangible. To give them an opportunity of 
doing this, your committee was appointed to receive and in- 
vestigate them ; whereby all objections to the source from 
whence the charges originated, were waived, not only by 
the Council, but by the Chancellor, who was present and 
concurred in the appointment of your committee, and the 
duties enjoined upon them by the Council, and who waived 
all formal objections, and challenged a full investigation of 
his conduct. 

" The Professors next assured your committee, in sub- 
stance, that the charges should soon be forthcoming ; but 
after considerable delay, finally declined making them at all 
to your committee — the organ of the council for this express 
purpose ; thus seeking to give an entirely different direction 
to the whole matter, and to change the accusers from them- 
selves to aimember of the Council, no one of whom as yet 



33 

has evinced a willingness to place himself in that position. — 
If the Professors as such were incompetent to become the 
accusers of the Chancellor, it is obvious that no member of 
the council could present charges against him, even though 
they originated with the Professors, without placing himself 
in the attitude of a prosecutor, and incurring all his respon- 
sibilities. It is for the council to determine whether the acts 
of the late Professors are to be regarded as evidence of a 
desire to avoid that responsibility themselves. 

" It w^ill be seen therefore, that the appointment of your 
committee has been rendered idle and nugatory, solely by 
the act of the Professors, to whom the opportunity of proving 
their charges against the Chancellor, has been tendered and 
declined. 

" A considerable period has since elapsed, but at no time 
has there been any indication on their part of a desire to 
meet the offer of the Council, and go into an investigation of 
the serious allegations which they have from time to time in- 
formally insinuated against the Chancellor. Their charges 
would at any time have been received by your committee, 
even after they had once dechned to present them, and the 
most ample inquiry instituted. It has always been 
well understood in the Council, that your committee at 
all times have been ready to receive any charges which 
they wished to make. Declarations of this kind have been 
made in the Council by members of the committee repeat- 
edly. It seems to your committee a new feature in the histo- 
ry of prosecutions, that the accuser, or one professing a 
desire to become such, should institute an inquiry into his 
own competency, no objection being made, and retire from 
the position he had once seemed anxious to occupy, leaving 
his assertions to commit what injury they may. In a case 
like the present, such conduct is productive of the grossest 
injustice toward the accused, who by the course of his ad- 
versaries is compelled to rest under suspicions which he has 
not the opportunity to explain or remove. The fairest rep- 
utation may in this way be seriously affected or totally de- 



33 

stroyed. In ordinary cases it is equivalent to a denial of the 
means of defence. The committee would be deficient in the 
discharge of their duty, and regardless of the value of a good 
character, if they failed to express their strong reprehension 
of such a procedure. 

" After what had occurred between the late Professors 
and your committee, as recited in the preceding report, they 
did not feel themselves called upon to repeat the offer here- 
tofore made. They could not do so with a proper regard to 
their own self-respect, much less to the consideration due to 
them as the organs of the council — as the supreme legislative 
power of the University. They had no reason to hope that 
they would be treated in any other manner than with the 
same disregard and contumacy. They therefore waited the 
action of the professors, trusting, that calm deliberation and 
reflection would convince them, that the Council and your 
committee had throughout been actuated, only by a sincere 
and honest desire to do justice to all concerned in this unfor- 
tunate controversy. A recent publication by a committee of 
the late Professors has convinced your committee of the 
soundness of these views. They now go a step farther and 
insist, that the appointment of the committee was unauthor- 
ized, and that the Council could not delegate to a committee 
the investigation of charges against an officer of the institu- 
tion. The fallacy and frivolousnesb* of this new objection 
will at once be seen. The Council delegated no power of 
judging or determining any questicrn growing out of the 
facts, but simply authorized some of its members to receive 
the charge and take and report the evidence given in regard 
to them to the Council,for its own determination. The judicial 
power was cautiously reserved to the Council. Proceedings 
of this kind are of frequent occurrence in legislative bodies. 
Scarcely a session passes without the appointment of one or 
more such committees. They are essential to the dispatch 
and convenience of business, and have alw^ays been recog- 
nized as legal and unobjectionable. 

" Your committee are compelled to the conclusion that the 



34 

suggestion by the professors, of this new and unfounded dif- 
ficulty, is not to be reconciled with a sincere desire for the 
discovery of truth. It is for the council to decide, whether 
it does not rather furnish additional evidence, that the late 
Professors had from the beginning, arrayed themselves in 
open and direct hostility to the Council. 

" Under these circumstances, your committee feel that no 
useful service will be subserved by the continuance of their 
appointment. Nothing remains for them except again to 
refer to their former report, and to request that they may be 
discharged from the further consideration of the several sub- 
jects referred to them. 

« New York, Sept. 27, 1 838. 

WM. CURTIS NO YES, Chairman,^ 

W. W. CHESTER, 

W. BORROWE, I p ... 

JAMES TALLMADGE, ^ committee. 

JOHN JOHNSTON, 
THOMAS SUFFERN, 

The Professors thus refusing to appear before the com- 
mittee of the Council, attempted to pursue a different course. 
In their pubhcation of the twenty-fourth of September, they 
insinuated that one reason why they did so was, that the 
committee were " the exclusive friends of the Chancellor," 
But they failed to state, what they very well knew, that the 
committee were forbidden to express an opinion—in short, 
that they were the mere amanuenses of the Council to report 
the evidence, and could not forestal its action or give it an 
undue bias by a prejudged opinion. This apology, therefore, 
falls to the ground. The other objection that they could not 
prefer charges, is equally idle. The Council as they well 
knew had waived it. 

But more remains to be said on this point. When, prior 
to the thirtieth of August, they desired J. Prescott Hall, Esq. 
one of the Council to present the charges, they either did or 
did not intend to withdraw themselves from their position of 
accusers. If they did not, it was a most idle ceremony to 
get him to present the charges for them and in their names. 



35 

They should have gone to the committee at once, before 
whom they had been invited to prove them. It is very cer- 
tain that Mr. Hall never intended to become the prosecutor ; 
this the Professors admit. How the legal objection to their 
competency to prefer charges, could be removed by his pre- 
senting them in their names and upon their responsibility, 
assuming none himself, is for the Professors to decide. To 
the Council it is inexplicable. They suggest a deference to 
the legal rule, and profess a desire to obey it. After a great 
exercise of ingenuity their efforts end where they began. 

The unjust and unfounded insinuations against Mr. Hall 
contained in the publication of the Professors last alluded to, 
will be properly estimated in this community where Mr. Hall 
is so well known and appreciated. Mr. Hall declares, he 
made no absolute promise or engagement to present the 
charges, much less to do so as an accuser of the Chancellor. 
The duties of Mr. Hall called him from the city on the day 
the Council met, and the Professors enclosed their commu- 
nication to the President requesting him to lay it before the 
Council. It was delivered to him after he had taken his 
seat as the presiding officer, and before an opportunity was 
furnished to read it. The fact that he had such a paper, 
was told to a member of the Council who has throughout 
identified himself with the Professors, and who asked the 
President to produce it before he had examined its contents. 
He was answered that he did not present any paper until 
he knew what it was. After he had examined it, and at a 
meeting of the Council the succeeding day, he stated its gen- 
eral nature, and that he should not present it, giving his 
reasons. They were in substance these ; 1st. That the pa- 
per was one of a highly offensive and objectionable charac- 
ter ; 2ndly. That he personally knew some of its statements 
to be false: 3dly — That he would not become the accu- 
ser of the Chancellor, whom he believed to be an upright 
and pure man ; and 4thly, That the matter was already 
in the hands of a committee, to whom the Professors could 
at once resort and obtain all they desired. The President 
at the same time stated, that any member w^as at liberty to 



36 

read and copy it, and any one of the friends of the Professors 
might adopt it as their own and present it, and it would re- 
ceive the immediate attention of the Council. None of them 
chose to do so. They declined becoming the accusers. — 
So did the Professors. They seemed satisfied with nothing 
short of an accusation of the Chancellor by one of his own 
friends, who beheves him guiltless. The attempt to place 
any of them in that predicament signally failed. The rea- 
sons of the President declining to present the charges were 
ample and satisfactory. The friends of the Professors in the 
Council were the persons upon whom this duty devolved. — 
They did not venture to perform it. The Council then had 
no charges before them — they have never had any. The 
Professors refused to appear before the committee, alleging 
they could not properly be the accusers. They will not pre- 
tend that they came before the Council in a character which 
they had just before thrown off and refused to continue. — 
This would be a strange inconsistency ; and yet they must do 
this to induce the belief that there was any refusal to inves- 
tigate their charges. The truth is, they discovered that they 
had placed themselves in a perilous position and were anx- 
ious to escape from it. In the attempt they avoided Scylla 
to fall into Charybdis. 

That which most of all has rendered this exposition ne- 
cessary is the suppression of facts by the late professors. — 
Some of them have been already mentioned. Among the 
many of which the Council and its President have just cause 
to complain, are those which relate to the conduct of that 
officer after the charges had been received by him. Doubt- 
less the late professors retained a copy. But they have as- 
serted " that they were kept in the pocket of the President 
of the Council— that they had not been investigated — 
that they had not even been read." Let the truth an- 
swer. They w^ere received by him on the thirtieth 
of August, and meetings of the Council were held on 
that and the next day. He left the city on the morning 
of the first of September for his country residence, and ad- 
dressed to the late Professors a letter which they have nev- 



37 

er even hinted at, and which advised them that he could not 
present the charges, and gave some of the reasons. This let- 
ter was sent from the post office near the country residence 
of the President, in Dutchess county, by mail, and the Presi- 
dent believes was received by the Professors as early as the 
fourth of September. They well knew therefore that 
the President would not become the accuser ; and though he 
did not then, but subsequently, return the copy of the char- 
ges delivered to him, this could not have prevented the fur- 
ther action of the Professors, or have compelled them to cease 
from the prosecution, if they wished to continue it. There 
was no impediment in the way of their coming to the Council 
properly, or of going to the committee. On the contrary in 
a note of their committee of the 2d instant, pubhshed in 
the Commercial Advertiser, they say "while our charges 
were slumbering in the hands of Gen. Tallmadge, we prepar- 
ed a new copy and put them into the hands of a member of 
the Council, who was ready to present them at a fit oppor- 
tunity, and who only withheld them, because the Council 
were so intent on their exscinding measures, as to leave him 
no hope of a calm and impartial hearing." Who this pru- 
dent member may be, the Council have no knowledge. — 
They do know however, that every member not only was 
at liberty, but had been invited, to adopt and present them. 
The excuse which the late Professors make for their non- 
presentation by their friends in the Council, will not answer 
the purpose. Here again an attention to dates, proves the 
frivolousness — to use no harsher term — of the reason assign- 
ed. The "exscinding measures" of the Council were 
adopted on the thirtieth of August ; they had already become 
the law of the Institution, and the late Professors had ap- 
pealed from them to the pubhc. The Council could not 
have been " intent " on an object already accomplished. — 
Nor will the public believe there was " no hope of a calm 
and impartial hearing," when the matter had more than a 
month previously, been placed by the Council in the best 
and most approved way for a just and true decision. 



88 

The Council believe, that this completes a statement and 
review of the facts relating to this branch of the extraordin- 
ary conduct of the late Professors. That a course so incon- 
sistent should have been pursued by them is indeed 
remarkable. To the Council it seems to be utterly irrecon- 
cilable vv^ith the upright and open positions, vs^^hich honorable 
men and fair adversaries even in personal v^arfare are 
bound to adopt. The Council have ever been desirous to 
do equal and exact justice in this matter. They have never 
withheld from the late Professors any of their rights, or plac- 
ed any obstacles in the way of the investigation of truth or 
the administration of evenhanded justice. They have pro- 
nounced no judgment, nor have they formed any opinion, that 
can operate to prevent the infliction of disgrace in the removal 
of the Chancellor, if he is guilty of any thing which requires 
so severe a visitation. They insist that the late Professors 
are alone responsible for the omission to investigate — that 
the Council have had no proof, and would have been com- 
mitting an act of irretrievable and unpardonable outrage and 
wrong, if they had suffered themselves to censure or remove 
the Chancellor. It would have been equivalent to a con- 
demnation unheard, and posterity would have execrated the 
memory of its authors. 

Thus, as the Council believe, have the pretended griev- 
ances of the late Professors been shown to be without foun- 
dation. There is no other matter between them and the 
Council, and they dismiss the subject, they hope, forever. — 
Other and greater duties now demand their attention, and 
they will endeavor to discharge them in such a manner, as to 
contribute to the present and future prosperity of the 
University. 

The Council would be doing injustice to the Chancellor, 
if they omitted to notice the charges of pecuniary delinquen- 
cy which have been industriously circulated against him. 
Upon this subject they needed no proof. The facts are 
within the knowledge and appear upon the records of the 
Council. When they are known it will be seen, that the 



39 

shamelessness and malice of the accusation are only paral- 
lelled by its falsehood. No inconsiderable care has been 
exercised upon this subject, and the Chancellor has always 
desired, and been held to, a rigid accountability for funds 
committed to him. There has not been one cent of de- 
falcation found in his accounts. It is not necessary to go 
far back in proof of this. The Council give from their re- 
cords the report of the Auditing Committee made at a meet- 
mg on the 26th of April 1838. 

" The subscribers appointed to audit the accounts of the 
Rev. Dr. Mathews, have performed that duty and find there 
is a balance due him of five thousand two hundred and fifty- 
four dollars and five cents on his general account, and two 
hundred and thirty-five dollars and ninety-two cents on his 
account of salary and house rent, making in all a balance 
due him the 21st April, 1838, of five thousand four hundred 
and eighty-nine 97-100 dollars." 

Cornelius Baker, ) » ,.• r^ ... 
T T» \ Auditmff Committee. 

J. KUTHVEN, ) ° 

At this meeting the Rev. Dr's. Milnor, Cox, Peters, and 
others were present, and it was resolved that the report be 
accepted and referred to the Finance committee. 

That committee reported the same balance due. This 
debt has not been diminished, on the contrary it has been 
and still is increasing. The greater part of it accrued for 
money advanced by him to relieve the embarrassments of 
the University. Since that time he has advanced an 
amount nearly equal, to cancel engagements, the payment 
of which could not be deferred. The Institution is now his 
debtor for about ten thousand dollars. In order to raise 
these sums the Chancellor has drawn upon his own resour- 
ces to an injurious extent, and has subjected himself to great 
inconvenience. To charge him with embezzling the money 
of the Institution, is the height of injustice and cruelty. 

It has already been stated that the Chancellor invited the 
fullest inquiry and investigation when the examination of the 
charges against him was referred to the committee. So 



40 

far as his consent to that proceeding could avail, it was 
fully and freely given. But he has done more than this. — 
At a meeting of the Council on the 27th of September last, 
he addressed them the following communication which was 
referred to a committee to examine and report. 

" To the Council of the University of the City of New 
York : 
" Gentlemen: — 

" There is much misrepresentation abroad as to certain 
scholarships which appeared among the original subscrip- 
tions to the University ; and some of which stood in the 
names of different clergymen of this city. The whole 
amount thus pledged to the University through my instru- 
mentality, has been paid into the treasury ; and I would 
respectfully request that a committee be appointed to ascer- 
tain and report the facts in the case, in order to disabuse the 
pubHc mind on this point without delay. 
Very respectfully, 

J. M. Mathews, Chancellor. 

" New York University, Sept. 27, 1838." 

Owing to other duties relating to the University and de- 
manding immediate attention, that committee has not yet 
made a report. It is expected to be laid before the Council 
at an early day, and the result, whether favorable or adverse 
to the Chancellor, shall in due time be laid before the public. 
In the meantime the Council feel it to be due to the Chan- 
cellor, as well as themselves, to say that so far as they know 
or believe, the charge alluded to is destitute of truth. They 
cannot believe, that during a period of five or six years, so 
gross a fraud would have escaped the vigilance of several 
auditing and finance committees, and the officers and mem- 
bers of the Council. It implies a neglect of their duties 
which can never be justly imputed to them. 

The Council cannot close this exposition, without dis- 
charging a further duty which they owe more especially to 
the Institution and its generous patrons and the public. 

The acts of the late Professors may for a while injure 



41 

the University and diminish the number of students. This 
was their unavoidable tendency, if not expressly desired by 
them. So conspicuous an example of insubordination could 
not fail to be followed by ardent and inconsiderate young 
men who had attached themselves to the late Professors. — 
There w^as the more necessity therefore for giving it an im- 
mediate and effectual check. Mature reflection will con- 
vince them of the imprudence of interfering with the govern- 
ment of the University ; and the Council doubt not, they 
will return to its hallowed retreats and protecting care, and 
realize the rich rewards which it dispenses. 

Fortunately the late Professors were unable to alarm the 
learned and distinguished men who now compose the Fac- 
ulty of Science and Letters, and prevent them from accept, 
ing the stations to which they had been called. The sarcasm 
put forth by them " will men of respectabihty be found to 
occupy places thus vacated and under the malign auspices 
of such a head?" shocked the public sense, and left it in 
doubt which most to condemn, the assurance of its authors, 
or the hypocrisy of their professions of attachment to the 
Institution. 

The sincerity of these Professors may be further ascer- 
tained by their address to the students in the University ; 
the whole design of which evidently is to induce them to leave 
it. After a recapitulation of their alleged grievances they 
say "Your position too, young gentlemen, is peculiar. But 
it is possible for you to escape from these difficulties." The 
desire of those who caused these observations to be publish- 
ed is too plain to be mistaken. It is, to destroy the institu- 
tion from which they have been separated. In accordance 
with this, and without calling upon the treasurer of the in- 
stitution, they have placed their accounts in the hands of an 
attorney, and threatened, if they have not already commenced 
prosecutions against the University ; thus increasing its em- 
barrassments, and burdening it with ruinous bills of costs. — 
If the payment of the amounts due them had been inten- 
tionally withheld, there would be some excuse for this 



42 

course : but it has been shown by their own statements 
made at a time when they had no interest to disguise the 
real facts, that the omission is chargeable to the circumstan- 
ces of the times, and not to any fault of the Council or the of- 
ficers of the University. Indeed, it has never been pretend- 
ed that the Council were at all answerable in the matter. — 
Whether an enlightened and discriminating public will sus- 
tain the late Professors in these measures, is a question easily 
determined. 

The other Faculties, with the exception of a vacancy in 
the Faculty of Law caused by the resignation of Mr. Gra- 
ham, and that of Medicine, are now filled by able and learn- 
ed Professors. Several appointments remain to be made in 
the latter, and the place of Mr. Graham to be filled; and 
when the whole organization is completed, the Council fully 
believe it will command the confidence of the community : 
and with the exception of the Faculty of Medicine, the sever- 
al Faculties are in complete and successful operation, and are 
fulfilling all that the extended foundation of the Institution 
promised. 

The Council feel a deep and abiding conviction, that the 
pecuniary affairs of the University will soon be placed upon 
a footing which will free it from embarrassment. To the 
accomplishment of this desirable object they will devote the 
most assiduous attention and patient care. Already have 
measures been taken to promote it. In this work they ex- 
pect the public approbation, and humbly implore the Divine 
Blessing. The sun of prosperity has brightened upon our 
hills, and is now casting his broad and cheering beams upon 
our city and Union. His coming after a night of darkness 
and disaster, has filled the land with gladness and rejoicing. 
The Council, and the patrons and friends of the institution, 
have participated in the general joy. It is a fit occasion, 
when the promises and fruition of abundance are every where 
around us, to consecrate a portion of the wealth of this great 
metropolis, to the cause of science and learning. Already 
several gentlemen, with a praiseworthy zeal, have offered to 



43 

make large and munificent donations. These examples will 
be followed by others actuated by the same generous spirit. 
The inhabitants of a city famed for its enterprize, liberality 
and inexhaustible resources, will never permit their own 
University to languish or expire. The plan of studies 
which it embraces and its free and popular constitution, so 
much in accordance with the spirit of the age in which we 
live, commend it most strongly to the public favor and 
patronage. Those who assisted in founding it as well as 
those who now come to its aid, not only confer an immedi- 
ate benefit upon the community, but upon themselves and 
the cause of literature. They will justly be esteemed ben- 
efactors of the human race. The magnificent University 
edifice will be a noble monument of their benevolent deeds. 
The sons of the University, the heralds of their fame, and 
future generations will award to them the meed of unfading 
gratitude. By order of the Council, 

JAMES TALLMADGE, President. 
Wm. B. Maclay, Secretary. 

UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 

In Council, Oct. 17, 1838. 
Resolved, That the Exposition prepared by the commit- 
tee of which Wm. Curtis Noyes, Esq. is chairman, relative 
to the late proceedings of the council, meets with the cordial 
approbation of the council and they authorize its extensive 
circulation in pamphlet form, as a document sanctioned by 
them. A copy from the records. 

JAMES TALLMADGE, President. 
William B. Maclay, Secretary. 



APPENDIX. 



UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 

September 19, 1838. 

The interest taken in the University of the city of New 
York by the friends of learning, has led the council on vari- 
ous occasions, to place its condition before the public. Per- 
haps there is no institution in the country which from its 
peculiar situation at the time, w^as so much exposed to suf- 
fering from the late pecuniary embarrassments which have 
fallen so heavily on our city. The University had its origin 
in the liberality of enlightened citizens, who desired to ex- 
tend the means of education, and the cause of learninsj ; and 
according as the council had a fair prospect of seeing this 
liberality continued and enlarged, did they extend the insti- 
tution, as to its capacity for usefulness. It was not long 
before the late public distress began to be felt, that the coun- 
cil made the contracts for finishing the building, now an 
ornament to our city, and admirably adapted to its purposes ; 
nor did they enter into those engagements until they had 
before them a subscription which, with the additions that in 
ordinary times might have been easily made to it, fully jus- 
tified them in the steps then taken, and the responsibihties 
necessarily incurred. 

Owing, however, to the unexpected and unparallelled 
reverses, which overtook the commercial community, the 
council found it impracticable, during the last two years, 
either to collect old subscriptions or to obtain new ones to 
any extent ; and the consequence has been serious inconve- 
nience both to the Council and to those who had claims on 
the institution. 

At this trying juncture the Legislature of the state, with 
enlightened regard to the public welfare, granted an annuity 



46 

to the University, which greatly relieves it from its pecuniary 
difficulties. This munificence of the Legislature imparted a 
feeling of confidence to the friends of the institution, and 
disposed them at once to take measures, by nev7 appeals to 
individual hberality, to free the University from its pressing 
debts. It v^as urged, hov^ever, by those who had been its 
long tried and most liberal friends, that, as a preliminary 
step, some plan should be adopted for bringing the ordinary 
expenses of the institution within its annual income, in order 
to prevent the recurrence of future embarrassments. 

Urged upon them as this measure was, not only by its 
intrinsic propriety, but by those who had already aided the 
University liberally, and were willing to do it again, the 
Council made the inquiry, how far this was practicable 
without infringing upon the advantages of the students, or 
the original objects of the Institution. They are happy to 
say that they have been enabled to comply with the advice 
thus urged upon them, without a sacrafice of either of these 
objects ; and at the same time, so as not to overburden any 
of their officers, though from some of them a greater amount 
of labor will be required than they have formerly rendered. 

It will be seen, upon a comparison, that the number of 
professors for the instruction of the under graduate classes, 
is in no respect inferior to those in the most respectable col- 
leges around us, who have the same number of students to 
instruct. The council are gratified to state that the places 
are to be filled by gentlemen of acknowledged experience 
and ability in their several departments ; while the advan- 
tages to be derived from the aid of professors belonging to 
the other various faculties, will enable them to render the 
course of under graduate instruction unusually varied and 
ample. All the studies heretofore pursued will still be 
taught, and to these will be superadded, without additional 
charge to the student, the Law of Nature and of Nations, 
Philosophy and Comparative Anatomy, as branches of study 
in the senior year. 

According to the arrangements now made, the following 
are the Faculties of the University, together with the profes- 
sorships of which they are respectively composed. 

FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND LETTERS, 

Professor of Languages, (Latin and Greek.) 

" of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. 



47 

Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy and Logic, 
(who also instructs in History.) 
" of Chemistry, Botany, Geology, and Miner- 

alogy. 
" of the Evidences of Revealed Religion and 

Belles Lettres. 
An assistant Professor of Languages. 

FACULTY or LETTERS A.ND ARTS. 

Professor of Civil Engineering and Achitecture. 

" of the Literature of the Arts of Design. 

" of Popular Education. 

" of Hebrew Language and Literature. 

" of Oriental Language and Literature. 

" of French Language and Literature. 

" of Spanish Language and Literature. 

" of German Language and Literature. 

" of Italian Language and Literature. 

FACULTY OF LAW. 

Professor of the Law of Real Property and of the Law 

of Nature and of Nations. 
" of the Law^ of Persons and Personal Property, 

including Commercial Law. 
" of the Law of Pleading and Practice. 

FACULTY OF MEDICINE. 

Professor of Anatomy, general and descriptive. 

" of Physiology. 

" of the Theory and Practice of Medicine. 

" of the Principles and Practice of Surgery. 

" of Midwifery and diseases of Women and 

Children. 

" of Chemistry. 

" of Clinical Medicine. 

" of Clinical Surgery. 

" of Pathological Anatomy. 

" of Diseases of the Eye and Ear. 

" of Diseases of the Skin. 

" of Mental Diseases. 

" of Physics and Physical Diagnosis. 

" of Hygiene. 

" of Medical Jurisprudence. 

" of Pharmacy. 

" of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy. 



48 

Several of the appointments in the Faculty of Medicine 
are yet to be made ; and in order to give the opportunity for 
ample preparation, the regular course of instruction in me- 
dicine is not to be commenced until a year from the present 
autumn. 

While the friends of the University will see from the above 
statement, that the great object of an enlarged system of in- 
struction is steadily pursued by the council ; it is proper to 
state that an appeal is soon to be made to the friends of 
learning for pecuniary aid to the Institution, and vv^hich v^ill 
be accompanied with a full exhibition of its liabihties and 
resources. Its present condition is such, that liberality can 
be extended to it with perfect assurance of its being availa- 
ble to give rehef, which will be both effectual and perma- 
nent. The building is now completed ; it will no longer act 
as an exhausting drain upon future benefactions ; on the 
contrary, it is now a source of important income. The 
grant from the State has enabled the Council, as has been 
stated, to bring the ordinary expenses of the Institution 
within its income, and yet to prosecute without abatement 
its enlarged and liberal designs. The aid now to be solici- 
ted is to pay off the floating debt, which has mainly accu- 
mulated during the period of the late public calamity. 

Happily for the friends of learning and of every public 
enterprise, this pressure is now passing away from the com- 
munity ; and perhaps a more fit offering cannot be present- 
ed to acknowledge the goodness of the Supreme Disposer 
of all events, than to sustain an Institution which, from its 
commencement, has been consecrated to the cause of truth 
and learning. 

Whether any farther communication to the public is to 
be expected from the Council, relating to the present condi- 
tion of the University, will depend upon circumstances here- 
after to transpire. They had at one time hoped that the 
arrangements now made would have met with concurrence 
throughout the Institution. In this, however, they have been 
disappointed. Very soon after the determination had been 
evinced to carry into effect the plan of retrenchment now 
adopted, the few Professors whose relations to the institu- 
tion, or whose amounts of salary and labor were likely to 
be afitected by it, brought allegations against the Chancellor, 
who was known, from the beginning, to be decidedly in 
favor of the measure as indispensable to the welfare of the 
University. 



49 

The desire of these gentlemen to bring charges against 
him were so urgent, that in July last a committee of the 
Council was appointed to receive and investigate them, and 
to report the facts to the Council. These Professors were 
officially informed of this ; and although by a law of the 
state the Chancellor might have refused to answer to char- 
ges brought by Professors, and the Council might have 
refused to entertain them, yet both the Council and the 
Chancellor waived the objection which might thus have 
been raised ; and the Professors were notified to present 
their charges to the committee without delay. Up to this 
time, however, they have never furnished to the committee 
the charges which they once seemed so anxious to prefer. 

It is due to truth and justice, however, to say, that the 
Council entertain undiminished confidence in the Chancellor. 
They cannot consent to condemn an individual whose life 
has been devoted to the faithful discharge of the most im- 
portant and sacred duties, without definite allegations and 
the clearest evidence. 

The Council are happy to state, that the most perfect 
harmony and cordiality prevails between the Chancellor and 
the Professors of the various faculties generally ; and they as- 
sure their patrons and the public, that at the opening of the 
approaching term, the students under the care of the Faculty 
of Science and Letters, will be provided with ample instruc- 
tion in their several branches of study. The collisions 
which have unfortunately arisen at this time are by no 
means uncommon in literary institutions. Few, if any, of 
even the ordinary colleges of our country, have been brought 
into successful and complete operation without something of 
the kind occurring among the officers, till time and habit 
have brought them to work together harmoniously and ef- 
fectually ; and in the establishment of a University contain- 
ing so many various Faculties and Professorships as belong to 
this Institution, it is not a matter of surprise that collisions 
should arise like those which have recently appeared in the 
University of this city. A firm, dignified and discreet exer- 
cise of the supreme authority by those into whose hands it is 
committed, will always be found to bring an adequate rem- 
edy for the evil. And such the Council doubt not will be the 
result in the present instance. 

By order of the Council, 

JAMES TALLMADGE, President. 

September 21. 

7 



THE UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK. 

TO THE PUBLIC. 

A LONG and necessary absence in the West, together with 
pressure of other and indispensable duties, must apologize for 
my neglect of a subject so important to the friends of the 
University, as the recent disturbances which have taken 
place in the affairs of the Institution. 

About seven years since an association of gentlemen was 
formed for the purpose of increasing the facilities of educa- 
tion, and estabHshing a University in the city of New- York, 
upon a plan, which should bring the means of instruction 
more immediately within the reach of the great mass of our 
population — a result which I need not say was considered 
eminently desirable, in reference to the more practical arts 
and sciences. 

One of the most active and energetic friends of this mea- 
sure was Dr. Mathews. The Institution in its infancy 
being without public endowment, depended entirely upon 
voluntary individual subscription ; by means of which a lot 
of land was purchased at an expense of 840,000, upon which 
the present edifice has beei;i erected, and the University has 
been put into successful operation. 

In accomphshing this, subscriptions have been solicited, 
collections made, and debts unavoidably incurred. Shortly 
before the late commercial revulsions, and in expectance of 
the aid of a liberal public, contracts had been made for fin- 
ishing the building, completing the marble foundation, and 
building the iron fence ; but in consequence of the disasters, 
in which all of us more or less participated, the circumstan- 
ces of many of the most liberal donors were altered so much 
for the worse, as to disappoint the Council in the expected 
receipt of considerable sums, and produce an almost entire 
suspension of new subscriptions. The consequence was a 
temporary embarrassment in the financial concerns of the 
University. 

A faculty of able professors had been provided, to ful- 
fil pubHc expectation. These were at first employed at sal- 



51 

aries of from #1,000 to $1,250, afterward raised to $1,500, 
and finally at $1,800 per annum. 

Through the whole progress of this undertaking, the 
University has been greatly indebted to the efforts of 
Dr. Mathews, who untiringly devoted his time and energies 
to advancing its interests, and in performing duties not only 
properly confined to his office of Chancellor, but those 
which, from the unavoidable neglect of members of the Coun- 
cil, pressed at the time by their own private exigencies, would 
otherwise have been neglected. In addition to his office of 
Chancellor, he was compelled to act upon almost every com- 
mittee — to serve as the effective part of the building com- 
mittee — to obtain subscriptions — to superintend all collec- 
tions and disbursements ; and in short, to provide for and 
supply the daily and hourly emergencies incident to an infant 
institution, and arising from the peculiar circumstances of 
that period. 

In addition to these, he was chosen to present the claims 
of the University upon the bounty of the state, when a divi- 
sion of the surplus fund was to be made for the purpose of 
education. And in the face of a powerful opposition, an an- 
nual endowment of $6,000 has been obtained from the Leg- 
islature, for which the University may be truly said to be in- 
debted to the fidehty and perseverance with which Dr. Ma- 
thews represented its claims to public support. 

For these services he has received no compensation, not 
even his expenses. The reward of his zeal is the noble In- 
stitution and beautiful edifice which ornaments our city, and 
I trust that when prejudices and private jealousies have burnt 
themselves out, time will do justice to its principal founder. 

More than one half, and I believe nearly two thirds, of 
the funds actually collected and paid for the University, have 
been contributed by the family, relations, and personal 
friends, of Dr. Mathews, and many of the loans made for 
the temporary convenience of the Institution, were upon his 
personal responsibihty. 

It is not for me to explain how circumstances of ambition 
and interest, or questions of discipline, brought the Chancel- 
lor into colHsion with certain of the Professors, or how they 
discovered what the Council were ignorant of, namely, 
" That the finances were in a bad condition, and he a gross 
defaulter." ** That his sanguine promises, upon the faith of 
subscriptions and collections, that Professors' and mechanics' 



62 

bills should be paid," — ^had destroyed his character for truth, 
and lost him the public confidence. 

These discoveries, made four years ago by two Profes- 
sors, and since chimed in with and re-echoed by enemies of 
the University itself and non-subscribers to its funds, must 
gain what credit they may with those, who, with all seeming 
zeal for the prosperity of our Institution, are willing to Hsten 
to accusations from a partizan source, rather than the deci- 
sion of that tribunal, which, if interested at all in the ques- 
tion, is bound by every principle to compel a fair and impar- 
tial accounting. 

It is enough to state that the Council have heard these 
accusations, and have examined the Chancellor's administra- 
tion of the fiscal interests of the University, and in their 
frequent and final accountings have never found nor sus- 
pected either defalcation or fraud, or any thing in the 
remotest manner implicating his character as an honest and 
upright man. 

Under the pressure of the times, the Council thought it ad- 
visable to retrench their expenses, and reduced the salaries 
of the Professors from f 1800 to #1500, a measure which was 
not acquiesced in without some murmurs ; but even this 
was found insufficient, and the Chancellor reduced his own 
salary from $1500 to f 1000. Upon subsequent investiga- 
tion, it was ascertained that the business of the Professors 
had been so divided as to engage them but two hours a day 
in teaching, and that during five days only in each week. 

The Council therefore determined on a reorganization 
which would require the labor of each Professor three hours 
during each day, thereby dispensing with the expense of one 
third of the Professors, and yet affording the same amount 
of tuition to the student. It was, in addition determined 
that the salary of each professor should be fixed at 81000, 
with an allowance of seven dollars for each student taught 
by each Professor, in order that the Professor might have that 
additional incentive in advancing the interests of the 
University. 

This new state of things, it seems, was not to be endured 
by the Professors. Unwilling to resign, they took legal 
counsel, for the purpose of retaining their places, in defiance 
of the Council, and have learned, it appears, from their legal 
advisers, that the Council, by appointing them, lost their pow- 
er of legislating for the welfare of the University, and of 



53 

abolishing their offices, except by removing the incumbent 
— the inference from which would seem to be, that a vote 
of the Council, uniting two professorships, or abolishing one, 
instead of removing a Professor, invested him with additional 
responsibility, in accordance with their views of propriety. 
The Professors making common cause against the Council 
advertised, upon their own responsibihty, the continuance of 
their offices, salaries, and modes of teaching, all which I shall 
leave them to explain consistently with the respect which, if 
I understand their printed card, they profess to observe 
toward the Council, and with that example of subordination 
which, in those entrusted with the instruction and disci- 
phne of youth, is usually considered in somo degree 
important. 

In commencing these proceedings on the part of the Pro- 
fessors, it was as usual discovered that the Chancellor was a 
defaulter in the University funds to a large amount — even 
beyond any sum at all consistent with the slender capital of 
the Institution ; and farther, it was discovered by the Pro- 
fessors "that he had lost the confidence of the public." 
Rumors ominous to the welfare of the Institution, scurrilous 
publications, and anonymous letters were employed to work 
upon the fears of parents and guardians ; and those who 
took the trouble to read all that our journals contained, 
might have reasonably supposed, that not only the Chancellor, 
but that the University was in a fair way (through the kind- 
ness of its well wishers) of losing the confidence of the 
public. 

In short the Professors, hired at ample salaries for the 
instruction of pupils, seem to have fallen into an error as to 
the nature of their engagement, and to have assumed the 
place of the Council, in regulating the finances and judging 
of the competency of the Chancellor of the Institution. 

Aware of the public jealousy in regard to the manage- 
ment of funds, the Council sometime last spring (the edifice 
being completed) appointed a committee to review and re- 
state the Chancellor's accounts, from the beginning to the 
completion of the building. — This committee in June last re- 
ported a balance then (and still) due to the Chancellor of 
$5000, and upward, arising out of advances made by him 
from his private funds for the emergencies of the University, 
after paying the amount of his subscription ; and, as I have 
remarked, he was one of the most liberal donors. The 



54 

Council agreed to this report, and this balance is now one of 
the admitted debts of the University. 

The charter of the University requires seventeen affir- 
mative votes in Council for the appointment of Professors, 
and nineteen for a removal for cause, on accusation for 
crime. This requirement may possibly have been counted 
on as disabling the Council from acting ; it being known that 
several seats in council had been conferred as honorary tokens 
on liberal donors, whose remote residence or circumstances 
might prevent them from attending. This was the case with 
Gen. Van Rensselaer of Albany, the Hon. Walter Bowne, 
then residing on Long Island, and several other gentlemen 
who could not then conveniently be at the Council meetings. 

I wrote to Gen. Van Rensselaer requesting his resigna- 
tion, under the exigency, that his place might be filled by 
some efficient person who could attend our meetings. He 
sent his resignation by the return mail, with expressions of 
good will and kindness, and other gentlemen similarly cir- 
stanced have been applied to. Their places are now nearly 
filled by gentlemen whose residence and situation enable 
them to be present at the necessary meetings. They have 
no doubt as to their powers, nor of the legality of the recent 
reorganization and retrenchment ; and in order to remove 
all doubt growing out of the learned opinion obtained by the 
Professors, the Council have recently adopted and confirmed 
the plan of retrenchment, and dismissed the resisting Pro- 
fessors, by an unanimous affirmative vote of nineteen. 

The Council have also by a like vote appointed a new set 
of Professors not inferior in respectability, standing or talent 
to the former, and who enter upon their duties with the full 
confidence of those who appointed them. — And parents and 
the pubhc may consider the Council pledged, that the educa- 
tion of young gentlemen confided to their care, shall receive 
constant and faithful superintendence, and that the standard 
of instruction shall continue of the high order originally 
promised. 

The creditors of the University need have no fears for 
the safety of their investment. Provision for the regular 
payment of the interest will be made, and I trust that the 
dayis not far distant for the final payment of the principal. 

A committee has been appointed to select and publish 
such of their proceedings and documents as may disabuse 
the public mind ; and which, I am confident, will sustain 



55 

this general and summary statement — for the correctness of 
which I refer to the Council and their records. 

Permit me to say a word as to myself. 

From circumstances not necessary now to explain, I have 
not yet seen any one of the numerous publications from the 
Professors, except their first pamphlet : but I hear much of 
them, and my friends inform me they are abusive upon me. 
The day of reckoning of the leaders of these Professors may 
come. At present they have my permission to go on. I 
have no fears and no favors to ask of them. — -The only favor 
I have to ask, is from this great and growing city, and from 
the people of this state, to come to the rescue of the Univer- 
sity of the City of New York. It is a noble Institution — a 
glorious foundation for public education : — it must not be 
permitted to sink. 

JAMES TALLMADGE, 

President of the Council of the University qf the City of New- York. 

Clinton Point, New Hamburg, 
Dutchess Co., Oct. 1, 1838. 



UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, 

November, 1838, 

The Exposition recently published by the Council of 
this Institution, in regard to the measures of retrenchment 
which led to the dismissal of some of the Professors in the 
Faculty of Science and Letters, expressed the hope, that the 
subject, so far as concerned those Professors, would from 
thenceforth be permitted to rest. It was not the intention 
of the Council again to agitate the matter. Having made 
their defence to the grave charges brought against them by 
the late Professors — a. defence which they are well assured 
was complete and triumphant — they desired to devote them- 
selves to the Institution over which they had been appointed 
guardians, and to advance its usefulness and prosperity 
without hinderance or interruption. 

In this hope they have been disappointed. The late 
Professors, not content with the convulsions which their 
obstinacy and rashness have already brought upon the Uni- 
versity, seem determined if possible to assail it still further ; 
and if they cannot regain their connection with it, to effect 
its destruction. In furtherance of these views, they have 
recently issued anew edition of their grievances in the form 
of a pamphlet, composed fo: the most part of the statements 
formerly made by them, and of a collection of all the rumors 
and inuendoes with which some portion of the city press, 
through their instrumentality, has abounded. The Council 
had for some time been aware that such a pubhcation would 
be forthcoming, and although there were some matters 
upon which the public mind required to be disabused, and 
in respect of which delay was much to be regretted, yet 
the Council deemed it due to the community which had been 
so long agitated with this controversy, and to themselves, 
that no further publication should be made on their behalf, 
until the late Professors had made their last statement and 
defence. 

This in the pamphlet referred to they have attempted to 
do. It will now be the duty of the Council to examine this 

8 



68 

last effort of disappointment and chagrin. They will do it 
with candor, and at the same time with freedom. If in so 
doing they shall speak with severity, it will be because the 
occasion demands it. The late Professors have placed 
themselves in a position, where truth and justice would be 
insulted and degraded, if their voice was silenced or 
suppressed. 

In the Exposition of the Council already alluded to it 
was maintained, and in the judgment of the Council 
established : 

First. That the measures of retrenchment which led to 
the severance of the late Professors from the Institution, had 
nothing whatever to do with the charges which they asserted 
they wished to bring against the Chancellor — that they 
originated long before, and when no such charges were in 
agitation to the knowledge of the Council or the Chancellor. 

Secondly. That the late Professors were dismissed be- 
cause they refused to come into the new organization of their 
Faculty, which imposed upon them an hour of additional 
labor each day, and reduced their number ; and because 
they claimed a right to retain their places, notwithstanding 
the resolutions of the Council ; thus setting it at defiance. 

Thirdly. That the late Professors did at one time profess 
a desire to prefer charges against the Chancellor, and that a 
Committee, in conformity with the desire of the Chancellor, 
was appointed to receive them, and report the evidence in 
regard to them to the Council, without comment or opinion ; 
before which Committee they refused to appear. 

Fourthly. That they never really had any inten- 
tion of becoming the accusers or of bringing charges against 
the Chancellor — that they withdrew from that position if 
they ever intended to take it, and attempted to throw its re- 
sponsibilities upon some of his friends in the Council ; their 
own declining to assume them : and 

Fifthly. That the Council never refused, but on the 
contrary furnished every facility for the investigation of any 
charges which might be brought against the Chancellor, and 
that any omission to investigate was chargeable solely to the 
late Professors and to them alone. 

None of these positions have been successfully attacked 
— their force has not even been weakened. In respect of 
the first, the late Professors insist, that their " first serious " 
collision with the Chancellor took place in February, 1837, 



59 

and they argue from thence, that the measures of retrench- 
ment were adopted more than a year afterwards to displace 
them. But it will be seen that this difficulty related simply 
to the payment of their salaries, and was never known to 
the Council until it made its appearance in the pamphlet of 
the late Professors. It certainly could not have influenced 
the Council when the Faculty of Science and Letters w^as 
reorganized. This is rendered perfectly conclusive by the 
fact, that several of the steadfast friends of the late Profes- 
sors in the Council assented to its necessity, and gave it 
their sanction. They certainly will not be suspected of 
having aided the Chancellor in any hostile measures against 
their friends. 

But the communication of the late Professors to the 
Council, dated February 12th, 1838, is referred to by them 
as showing that they meditated the removal of the Chancellor 
at that period. It is confined entirely to complaints about 
the non-payment of their salaries and their pecuniary embar- 
rassments, and towards its close contains this paragraph, 
" But on the other hand can we hope to hold up this whole 
machinery under present auspices ? Is not some movement 
to our aid imperatively necessary ? We earnestly ask of the 
Council, whether the affairs of the University do not demand 
a thorough investigation, and the application of an effectual 
remedy ?" Not one word is said in it against the Chancellor 
— no hint is given that he was even unworthy of confidence 
— nothing is said from which an honest straight-forward 
man would suspect that his displacement was contemplated ; 
and yet the late Professors assert, that by ^^ present auspices'* 
they meant to refer " most distinctly " to the Chancellor, 
and by " an effectual remedy " as the result of " a thorough 
investigation,^^ they meant " with equal distinctness "to refer 
to his removal. Most distinct reference and remedy truly ! 
which no honest man would imagine, nor the most astute 
and suspicious, suspect. And this is one of the methods — 
remote, disingenuous, Jesuitical— v/hich they avow they 
adopted in order to expel the Chancellor from the Univer- 
sity ; at a time too when he was absent at Albany, exerting 
his best energies to promote its interests and their own. It 
seems to the Council that these Professors must be ignorant 
of the language they employ, if they use it with so Httle 
directness. 

No one can doubt that the Council properly considered 



60 

this communication simply as a request in regard to salary. 
It never entered the minds of any — except the initiated, if 
there were such — that an impeachment of the Chancellor 
was meditated by the late Professors ; much less intimated 
in this paper. They had supposed them high-minded and 
honorable men, who would not be guilty of making vague 
and indefinite assertions, and of claiming for them an extend- 
ed and fearful meaning ; men who did not deal in the petty 
arts of intrigue and chicanery, and who would disdain arriv- 
ing at results so important and fatal in their character by 
means so indirect. Viewing the communication in this light, 
they referred it to a committee consisting of the Rev. Drs. 
Cox, Peters, and W. B. Crosby, Esq., with directions to 
confer with its authors and make known to them the views 
of the Council. The use made of this paper, and the conduct 
of this Committee as it is now for the first time developed, is 
so extraordinary and unjustifiable, that the Council give their 
proceedings at length as entered upon their records : — 

" In Council, February 15, 1838. 

" A communication was presented and read from the 
Faculty requesting the payment of their salaries. 

^^ Resolved, That a Committee of three be appointed to 
confer with the Faculty. The Chair appointed Dr. S. H. 
Cox, Dr. A. Peters, and W. B. Crosby as that Committee." 

The Council are aware of the tendency of men to assume 
power not delegated ; bu> they never expected so enlarged 
a grasp as that which this Committee ventured upon ; much 
less did they ever think of conferring it. And yet the extent 
of jurisdiction which they attempted to exercise, shown by 
the record of their acts, as given by the late Professors, 
exhibits the most arbitrary and unwarranted usurpation. 
The Professors say : 

'^ The paper of the Professors from which the foregoing 
extract is made, received the following reply : — 

New-York, Feb. 15, 1838. 
Professor R. B. Patton, 

Dear Sir : — I am directed to inform you that at a meet- 
ing of the Council of the University, this evening, the Rev. 
Dr. Cox, W. Crosby, Esq. and myself, were appointed a 
Committee to confer with the Faculty, and represent the 
views of the Council on the subject of the communication 



61 

from the Faculty, this evening brought before them by their 
President. 

The above Committee propose to meet the Faculty at 
such room as you shall appoint in the University, on Satur- 
day next, the 17th instant, at half past 4 o'nock, P. M. 

Will you have the goodness to notify the members of the 
Faculty, to make the requisite provision of a room for the 
proposed interview, and oblige yours, 

Dear Sir, very respectfully, 

On behalf of the Committee, 

ABSALOM PETERS. 

The folio w^ing is the minute of the meeting held according 
to the above notification : 

Feb. 17, 1838, half past 4 P. M. 

The Faculty met the Committee of the Council accord- 
ing to appointment. The Committee were all present, viz 
Rev. Dr. Cox, Rev. Dr. Peters, and William B. Crosby, Esq. 
The Secretary of the Faculty being absent. Professor Tap- 
pan was appointed Secretary pro tem. 

The Committee, then, in the name of the Council, assured 
the Faculty of the unabated esteem and confidence with 
which the Council regarded them. That the Council appre- 
ciate their pecuniary and other difficulties ; that at the proper 
time they will hold themselves ready to adjust satisfactorily 
every just subject of complaint. 

That they can hear nothing at present involving an im- 
peachment of the Chancellor. 

First — Because he is absent. Secondly — Because any 
convulsion of the Institution, at the present time, must endan- 
ger the application now pending before the Legislature. 

They expressed their strong conviction that the ex- 
istence of the Institution depends upon the Faculty holding 
together, and carrying on, in the best way they can, its 
internal operations, and they desired the Faculty to commu- 
nicate to them their determination on this subject. 

That the Council do not beheve that there has been any 
dishonesties committed in relation to the funds, but that 
there has undoubtedly been great mismanagement — a great 
want of economy, and unwise appropriations. 

That in order to remedy the embarrassments which have 
resulted, and to prevent the recurrence of similar embar- 
rassments, the Council are about to divorce the management 



(52 

of the finances from the head executive officer of the Insti- 
tution, and to commit them to a Committee of Finance and 
a responsible Steward, according to a plan which the Coun- 
cil are now digesting. 

That the immediate resources of the Council, consist of a 
subscription of $18,000, and the expectation of an appro- 
priation from the Legislature of the State— and that the 
Council will appropriate the first moneys reaHzed from these 
or any other sources to the payment of the Faculty. 

The Committee then requested information respecting 
the removal of the fees of tuition from the hands 
of the assisstant Treasurer, Professor Fatten, about the be- 
ginning of October last— and also respecting the sums 
actually paid to the Professors from moneys subscribed by 
the Council, Dec. 8th, or about that that time. 

Thereupon the Committee dissolved the meeting, and the 
Faculty adjourned. 

H. P. TAPPAN, Sec. pro tem." 

By this minute it will be seen that the Committee, under 
a resolution in regard to the payment of salaries, assumed 
the whole power of the Council, considered themselves em- 
powered to receive an ^Hmpeadimenf^ of the Chancellor, 
and only declined doing so because he was absent, and it 
might endanger the apphcation then pending before the Le- 
gislature. Yet this Committee never reported any of their 
proceedings to the Council, who remained in entire igno- 
rance of them until the Professors made them public. There 
was no objection at this time that the Council had impro- 
perly conferred their powers upon a Committee ; this was 
reserved for a future occasion ; on the contrary, the attempt 
on the part of the late Professors was to act upon, and on the 
part of the Committee to exercise, powers not delegated ; 
and all to accomplish the destruction of the Chancellor by 
indirect means during his absence, and while ignorant of 
tiieir schemes. This minute of the acts of the Committee 
also shows, that the late Professors did express a desire to 
present something " involving an impeachment of the Chan- 
cellor ;" else, why did the Committee decline to hear it ? And 
yet in almost the next page of their pamphlet, they admit in 
reference as well to this, as to their other professions of a 
wish to become the accusers, that " they did not contemplate 
becoming themselves i\iQ formal prosecutors of the Chancel- 
lor, nor from the sentiments expressed by many members of 



63 

the Council, did they deem it necessary." It remains for 
the late Professors to reconcile these contradictions, and 
others which will be hereafter pointed out. They are appa- 
rent and startling, and should overwhelm their authors with 
shame and confusion. 

But extraordinary and revolting as was the conduct of the 
Professors, and unkind and ungenerous as w^as that of the 
Committee, in regard to the Chancellor — their colleague in 
the Council, and as to two of them their brother in the sacred 
ministry — does this communication or the proceedings upon 
it tend to shov/, that the Council adopted the reorganization 
for the purpose of covering the Chancellor's offences ? Cer- 
tainly not. The Council never knew or heard that the com- 
munication was any other than it purported to be, and the 
doings of the Committee were kept a profound secret from 
all the Chancellor's friends, in and out of the Council. That 
the Council could have been influenced by a latent meaning, 
now for the first time imputed to the letter of the late Pro- 
fessors, or by the proceedings of a Committee sitting in 
secret, no sensible man will dare to pretend. This pretence 
of the Professors therefore falls to the ground. 

This part of the history of the recent transactions of the 
late Professors, deserves however a more extended notice. 
It distinctly developes their original improper and insidious 
designs, and the Council would be permitting them to escape 
"unwhipt of justice," if they failed to expose them. It will 
be remembered that when this plan was matured and in 
part carried into efiect, the Chancellor was absent at Albany. 
The Professors assert that there had been a rupture be- 
tv/een them. No better opportunity to conspire to dethrone 
him could present itself. There was little danger that he 
would discover their intrigues and take measures to arrest 
them. They were aware of his energy and vigilance, and 
greedily embraced a time when they had nothing to fear 
from his presence. An insidious and cunningly worded 
communication to the Council, could bring the matter be- 
fore a Committee ; there they could have a greater scope ; 
thus an inroad would be made upon the Chancellor's charac- 
ter, and the faith of the Council in him would be shaken — 
his friends would be alienated — and all this would end in his 
removal. Thus would the Professors have a complete 
triumph, and enjoy the gratification of having succeeded in 
divorcing from the Institution, one v/hom, no one can doubt 



u 

from their subsequent conduct, they wished to injure and 
destroy. Their acts and intentions, as they now admit 
them, all pointed to this result ; and the Council fully believe 
such were their ultimate designs. It is in vain for them to 
deny this. It is more than admitted, when, in reference to 
a subsequent period they say, (p. 18,) "From the whole 
aspect of the measures of the Council, and from the senti- 
ments expressed by many individual members, we could not 
but believe, that a movement on our part, made judiciously, 
v^ould be frankly and cordially met on their part." There 
is some falsehood as well as truth, even in this sentence. At 
this time (May last) there had not been a " measure'^ of the 
Council the " aspecf' of which even glanced at the Chancel- 
lor, or at any charges against him ; they had not been men- 
tioned or thought of in any of its meetings — the Professors 
had not even presented the " want of confidence" letter to 
Dr. Milnor's Committee. Probably some " individual mem- 
bers" of the Council had concurred in wishing a ^^ judicious 
movement ;" but they must have silently concurred, and only 
because they were concerned in the same scheme with 
the Professors. This intention is further shown, by the 
manner in which they afterwards attempted to impeach the 
Chancellor before Dr. Milnor's Committee. The Council 
have already spoken of this proceeding as they think it de- 
serves. But the Professors have disclosed some new por- 
tions of the transaction, which impart to it a character still 
more odious. At p. 20, after having given their letter to 
this Committee, they say, " They (the Professors) presumed 
that this paper would come before the Council ; but the 
time and circumstances of its presentation, they deemed it 
both respectful and judicious to leave to the judgment of 
the Committee. Before they had decided what disposition 
to make of it, and while its existence was known only to them- 
selves, the Chancellor, in an interview with the Committee, 
was led, from a remark dropped incidentally by a mem- 
ber OF THAT BODY, to su^pect that some communication had 
been made to them. He immediately insisted upon infor- 
mation. It was given, and the paper read to him. Its con- 
tents apparently produced a deep impression on himr Let 
it be remembered that this was after the 4th of June — after 
the measure of retrenchment had been some time in charge 
of a Committee, and v*^hile the Chancellor had no suspicion 
of any such attack upon him being in contemplation — and 



65 

then, can any one read this confession of the Professors 
without a spontaneous feehng of honest indignation ? 

According to the account here given by the Professors, 
the use to be made of the letter, which was aimed at the de- 
struction of the office and character of the Chancellor, was 
left to the judgment of the Committee ; and they are repre- 
sented as, w^ith a want of candor and frankness due always 
from one man to another, keeping it a secret from the per- 
son it implicated, and from his friends, and as having not " de- 
cided what disposition to make of it." In the mean time, 
the committee hold an interview with the Chancellor, and 
are represented, as concealing the message with which they 
were charged ; but make incautious observations, which 
lead to a suspicion of the nature of the plot against him ; 
and then, in the consciousness of rectitude, the Chancellor im- 
mediately insists upon information, not fearing to meet any 
assault which should be made upon him. Then, and not till 
then, is the letter shown him. Were the Council to believe 
in the correctness of the statement given by these gentle- 
men, they must suppose that the letter had been studiously 
kept concealed, to be employed when its use would be 
most fatal and deadly ; and that, but for the energy and 
boldness of the Chancellor upon this occasion, it might still 
have been kept from his knowledge, to be produced against 
him when judged most " judicious" — perhaps, when he was 
absent from the city, or even from the country, and when it 
would be impossible to defend himself against it, before it 
would have produced a lasting impression to his disadvan- 
tacje. For it should here be remarked, that these Profes- 
sors have shown, by their own account of their conduct in 
February last, that they had a remarkable fondness for at- 
tacking the Chancellor when he was absent. Whatever 
may have been the views of the late Professors, however, 
the Council cannot beheve that the Committee to whom 
they had given this famous letter, could have united with 
them in such a plot as their late pamphlet betrays. 

The first position then taken by the Council remains 
unshaken. The assault which has been made upon it only 
shows its impregnable character. 

As to the second, the pamphlet of the late Professors is 
pregnant with admissions which sustain and fortify it. At 
pp. 3^ and 36, they set out the letters of the Assistant 
Secretary of the Council, and the Chairman of the Commit- 

9 



66 

tee appointed to confer with them, and receive their 
appUcations for the Professors' chairs under the new organ- 
ization, and give their own letter in answer to that of the 
Secretary. By these it will be seen, that they treated the 
Secretary with disrespect, and the Council and the Com- 
mittee with intentional disregard and contumacy. They 
refused even to confer upon the subject ; although in the 
pamphlet they carefully conceal this fact — gliding from it 
in its necessary connexion, and omitting to mention it with 
remarkable facility. They have, however, left it upon 
record in another form, notwithstanding this seeming anxiety 
to conceal it. In their communication of the 24th of Sept. 
last, which appeared in the Journal of Commerce of the 
succeeding day, after admitting the publication of their card, 
they say, "Are we to be represented as refractory and 
rebellious because we disregard the act as illegal, and as 
an outrageous violation of right, and go on calmly and decid- 
edly to the discharge of our duty ?" After this no one can 
doubt that the second point of the Council is proved, and that 
by the admissions of the Professors. Their course evinced 
a resolute determination not to have their number dimin- 
ished ; and that, to use their own phrase, they would " sink 
or swim together." In confirmation of this, it may be added, 
that when a member of the Council, who was anxious to the 
last to retain some of them in the Faculty, waited upon one 
of them to learn his views, the Professor replied to him, that 
he did not think any such arrangement could be brought 
about, as there were insuperable difficulties in the way. In 
their whole conduct, they betrayed a settled conspiracy 
against the authority and measures of the Council, to effect 
the proposed retrenchment. 

As to the third position taken by the Council there never 
bas been any dispute ; it is conceded upon both sides. 

Those who have read the "Exposition" of the Council, 
may judge of the surprise with which the Council witnessed 
the manner in which their fourth ground is met in the 
Professors' pamphlet. Instead of denying it, or showing 
any thing to counteract its effect, they substantially concede 
it. At p. 19, they say, "they did not contemplate becoming 
themselves the formal prosecutors of the Chancellor." At 
p. 26, they say, " we have already stated, that it was not our 
intention^ as it was not our office, to become the formal pros- 
ecutors of the Chancellor, but to present an occasion for an 



67 

investigation, to be instituted on the part of the Council. 
Again, at p. 28, when speaking of the reference of the matter 
to a Committee to take proofs and report them to the Council 
they complain^ that " a direction was given to the whole 
affair contrary to what the Professors had a right to expect 
and justice demanded. It assumed that they are to become 
the formal prosecutors of the Chancellor; and they are re- 
quested to furnish the charges which they had to prefer 
against the Chancellor. Now they had intended to call the 
attention of the Council to no charges, but what were ex- 
pressed and contained by obvious implication in the two 
propositions — " in our opinion the head of the Institution does 
not possess the confidence of the community," and " we avow 
that he has forfeited our own confidence." After an atten- 
tive perusal of these extracts, it must require great credulity 
to believe, that there was any good faith on the part of the 
Professors in offering to prefer charges. But if there was, 
there is no doubt that they made an earnest eflfort to escape 
from the situation in which it placed them : this has been so 
fully shown that the Council will not enlarge upon it. 

The Council will not go at length into an examination 
of their fifth ground. If the appointment of a committee of 
intelligent and upright men, directed simply to take the evi- 
dence given for and against the charges, and report them to 
the Council without comment or opinion, be not doing all 
that usage and justice demand in a case of this kind, 
the Council are much deceived ; and that the admitted 
refusal to appear before such a committee, was an abandon- 
ment of the stand originally taken by the Professors, the 
Council have no question. 

It is not to be expected that the Council should follow the 
Professors in every misrepresentation which they may choose 
to pubhsh. But with a view of disabusing the public mind 
on several other points embraced in their pamphlet, the 
following instances of self-contradiction and false statements 
are given, in order to show the spirit with which these gen- 
tlemen are disposed to conduct the controversy, and the 
credit due to their representations of facts. If the Council 
have not mistaken the force of evidence, the former will be 
found as irreconcilable with principle, as the latter with 
truth. In the judgment of the Council, the observations of a 
learned and distinguished jurist, Judge Story, are peculiarly 
applicable to them. He says, " It has been said that if wit- 



68 

nesses concur in proof of a material fact, they ought to be 
believed in respect to that fact, whatever may be the other 
contradictions in their testimony. That position may be 
true under certain circumstances ; but it is a doctrine which 
can be received only under many qualifications and with 
great caution. If the circumstances respecting which the 
testimony is discordant be immaterial, and of such a nature 
that mistakes may easily exist, and be accounted for in a 
manner consistent with the utmost, good faith and probabil- 
ty, there is much reason for indulging the belief, that the 
discrepancies arise from the infirmity of the human mind 
rather than from deliberate error. But w^hen the party 
speaks to a fact in respect of which he cannot be presumed 
liable to mistake, if the fact turn out otherwise, it is extremely 
difficult to exempt him from the charge of deliberate false- 
hood ; and courts of justice, under such circumstances, are 
bound to apply the maxim falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus. 
What ground of belief can there be left, when the party has 
shown such gross insensibility to the difference between 
right and wrong — between truth and falsehood ?" 

With this safe and judicious rule to guide them in the 
further examination of the statements of these Professors, 
the Council proceed to specify the following 

SELF-CONTRADICTIONS. 

I. The Professors make it a point of great importance, 
that John L. Graham, Esq., being a Regent of the State Uni- 
versity, cannot legally be a member of the Council, (p. 34,) 
and they have endeavored to fortify their position by the 
legal opinion of gentlemen of the bar. And yet, when 
General Van Rensselaer resigns his place in the Council, 
it is lamented by the Professors, (pp. 45,46,) as a very great 
loss to the interests of the University, and as wholly uncalled 
for by any considerations of expediency or wisdom. Gen. 
Van Rensselaer, however, as is well known, has been a Re- 
gent of the State University for a much longer period than 
Mr. Graham, and is indeed Chancellor of that board. Do 
these gentlemen imagine that the pubhc will not see through 
this inconsistency ? 

II. They state in their pamphlet (pp. 26, 28, &c.) that 
it was " not their intention to become the formal prosecu- 
tors of the Chancellor;" a declaration, as already remarked, 
that has surprised the Council not a little. Compare it with 



69 

the following extracts from their communication laid before 
the Council on the 19th day of July last ; (p. 25,) " We have 
brought these charges against a man high in station, and most 
honorably connected in the community." " We have taken 
our stand from a sense of duty to ourselves, to the youth 
who have been placed in the bosom of this Institution to be 
nurtured not only in science but in virtue, to the Council who 
have confided to us the interior management of the Institu- 
tion, and to the public and the State whose bounty has en- 
dowed it. Aa investigation can alone decide, whether we 
have assumed a necessary though painful responsibility from 
these high motives, or whether we have combined with a 
unanimity, hitherto unparalleled in the annals of falsehood 
and malignity, to ruin the character of an innocent man." 
These men here state, that they "have brought charges" 
against the Chancellor ; they urge an investigation of the 
charges which they have brought, declaring " that an inves- 
tigation can alone decide whether they have assumed a ne- 
cessary though painful responsibility;" and yet they now 
declare, " it was not their intention to become the formal 
prosecutors of the Chancellor." 

Take another extract from p. 29 of their pamphlet : 
" On the one hand, believing that if we could prove that the 
Chancellor did not possess the confidence of the community, 
and could show ample grounds for his having forfeited our 
own confidence, we should be sustained by the Council in 
the conclusion, that his longer connexion with the Institu- 
tion would defeat every expedient to relieve its embarrass- 
ments, to elevate its character, or to augment its resources ; 
while on the other hand, if we failed to make them good, we 
would lay ourselves open to the most serious consequences, 
for a deliberate attempt to calumniate a respectable man. 
On assuming the responsibility of this alternative, we claimed 
of the Council as a bench of judges," &lc. They speak of 
undertaking to prove the Chancellor guilty, of their failing to 
make the case good, of their assuming the responsibility of 
this alternative, and of their claiming to be heard by the 
Council as a bench of judges — and yet now they tell us, that 
it was never their intention to be formal prosecutors of the 
Chancellor. Do these men themselves understand the 
meaning of the Enghsli language 1 Or do they suppose 
that the public can be misled by such trifling ? Their after- 



70 

thought, questioning their own competency, has been already 
sufficiently exposed.* ^ 

III. The whole tenor of their pamphlet would go to 
show, that the University has been in a languishing and em- 
barrassed state from its commencement, owing to the " ma- 
lign influence of its head." Such indeed is the express 
language of their publication of the 24th of September last, 
pubUshed in the Journal of Commerce, and in which they 
say, " the causes of pecuniary embarrassment are, first, the 
undertaking an extensive structure upon a subscription which 
did not justify the steps taken and the responsibilities incur- 
red." " Another cause is found in the reckless and extrava- 
gant expenditures of the Chancellor, as the financier of the 
Institution." How do these allegations compare with the 
following declarations made to the Committee of Finance 
about a year since ?t " From the time of the first estabhsh- 
ment of the University down to the present moment, the 
number of students has been steadily increasing, the various 
departments of study have been provided for, while the con- 
fidence of the public has been constantly becoming stronger 
and more deeply rooted. The success of the Institution, we 
may confidently say, has exceeded the expectations of the 
most sanguine. In the midst of this unparalleled success, 
while we numbered one hundred and fifty students, pursuing 
studies of the under graduate course, and shortly after the 
salaries of the Professors had been raised to a higher rate 
than they ever yet had reached — owing to circumstances 
which the wisest and the strongest could not control, occasion- 
ing universal and unprecedented distress — from the first of 
February 1837, these salaries, which up to that time had 
been punctually paid at the expiration of each quarter, could 
no longer be paid at the time they became due." These 
gentlemen here expHcitly declare, that the Institution with 
Dr. Mathews at its head, was going on with unparalleled suc- 
cess, and the public confidence becoming stronger and more 
deeply rooted, until the first of February 1837 ; when, owing 
to circumstances which the wisest and the strongest could 
not control, occasioning universal and unprecedented dis- 
tress, their salaries, which up to that time had been punctu- 
ally paid at the expiration of each quarter, could no longer 
be paid at the time they became due. By their own show- 

* Vide p. 30 of Exposition. f Vide p. 13 of Exposition. 



71 

ing then, there was no want of confidence in the Chancellor 
which prevented •' the success of the Institution" from " ex- 
ceeding the hopes of the most sanguine," while their salaries 
were punctually paid. And if, notwithstanding the universal 
and unprecedented distress of the times, their salaries had 
been still paid punctually, and they allowed to continue in 
office, laboring but one or two hours per day, it is apparent 
their confidence would not have been so suddenly destroyed. 
It may readily be supposed that men who will thus con- 
tradict themselves will not be found very cautious in contra- 
dicting plain facts. Accordingly the Council select from their 
pamphlet the following instances of false statements, and 
again ask for the apphcation of Judge Story's salutary rule. 

FALSE STATEMENTS. 

I. One of the most prominent of these is contained in 
the first paragraph of their last pamphlet. It is singular that 
their opening statement should contradict facts well under- 
stood by this whole community. They say, (p. 1,) " The 
University of the city of New-York had its origin in the 
councils of a number of individuals. It was the conception 
of no one man ; or if the conception of one man, the late 
Rev. Dr. Gunn is entitled to that honor." The attempt here 
is to take from the Chancellor all credit of conceiving the 
plan of the University, or essentially aiding in its foundation. 
And yet, by unanimous consent, this distinction has always 
been awarded to him, and was never before disputed. It 
is not enough that the Professors attempt to ruin his charac- 
ter and destroy his usefulness, they must rob him of all merit 
as connected with the foundation of the Institution. 

II. The Professors declare, that the Chancellor affirms 
that the subscription books are lost, (p. 6, and App. p. 10.) 
The Chancellor affirms no such thing to the knowledge of the 
Council. On the contrary, he has always affirmed that 
there were subscription books on hand, quite sufficient to 
furnish an entire fist of every subscription made to the Insti- 
tution, and of the subscribers' names. And such upon inves- 
tigation has turned out to be the fact, as the books of the In- 
stitution show. When the first efforts were made to obtain 
subscriptions, the secretary of the committee to which this la- 
borious and important service was intrusted, and which com- 
prised several of our most worthy citizens, furnished ten or 



72 

twelve subscription books, to be used as they might be called 
for by different members of the Committee. They were 
accordingly taken by any one who imagined that he could 
obtain the name of a new subscriber ; and when returned 
to the Secretary it was his habit to transcribe any new name 
or names which had been obtained, into the various books 
which might then be in his possession. All the books in 
this way were made to contain a general list of subscribers ; 
and by comparing them with the amount reported by the 
Committees, appointed on the subject in 1831 and 1833, it 
is found, that not a name of a subscriber or an amount sub- 
scribed is now wanting. But had it been otherwise, and had 
books still been wanting in order to make up a complete 
list, why should the Chancellor be charged with the loss of 
the books more than any other member of the ('ouncil ? 
The books were never committed to him for safe keeping, 
nor was he in any respect more responsible for them than 
other members into whose hands they had occasionally 
passed. They were legally, as well as actually, in the pos- 
session and under the control of the various officers of the 
Institution ; and the Chancellor and other members of the 
Council had access to them, and they could be no more 
chargeable with their disappearance than those officers. 
The truth is, when any thing supposed to be odious or crim- 
inal has occurred in relation to the University, it is charged 
upon the Chancellor, or some of his friends in the Council ; 
while on the other hand, they are both uniformly deprived 
of any merit for any thing praiseworthy. 

But the folly and injustice of the surmises founded upon 
the alleged absence of these books demands exposure. The 
Professors must intend to insinuate, that they were kept 
away because their presence w^ould bring to light some de- 
falcation. And is this to be presumed? And against a 
man who has long borne a character and sustained relations 
which forbid it? Is it the part either of justice or charity 
to indulge such a suspicion ? It is reversing the order of 
evidence, and committing a sin against the individual and 
against society. These books were doubtless laid aside 
after their original purpose had been fulfilled, and whether to 
be found or not, there always existed ample means to detect 
any fraud. Every person who made a subscription was 
entitled to certain privileges in the University ; such as de- 
duction of three per cent, from tuition fees ; free scholar- 



73 

ships, and voting at the annual elections. Every person 
entitled to the exercise of these privileges w^ould insist upon 
them, and they were constantly recurring; and no rational 
man will believe, that so long a period could have elapsed 
since the subscriptions were made, without detecting frauds, 
if any had been committed. The right to vote at the elec- 
tions for members of the Council is, by the statutes of the 
University, determined by a list of the shareholders, which 
the Secretary is required to make before an election 
takes place. These lists have been annually made, and there 
has never been a suggestion from any quarter, that any of them 
were incorrect, or that a single subscriber had not been 
credited with the amount of his contribution to its funds. 
It will be seen, therefore, that the existence of the original 
subscription books is wholly immaterial to the exposure of 
any fraud. This the Professors must have known. With 
a knowledge of these facts, it required, in the judgment of the 
Council, no ordinary degree of profligacy, to charge upon 
the Chancellor the concealment of these books to hide 
defalcations. 

III. The Professors state, (p. 4,) that " in consequence 
of the appointment of Dr. Mathews to the Chancellorship, 
many individuals of high standing and influence withdrew 
immediately, or soon after it took place, from all connexion 
with the Institution," &c.; and also, that " on account of his 
appointment, many of the original subscribers refused to 
pay their subscriptions," &c. All this is new to the members 
of the Council, although many of the present members 
have been actively engaged, in behalf of the Institution, and 
in the management of its concerns ever since its creation. 
On the other hand, not one of the late Professors was then 
in any way connected with the Institution, or acquainted 
with its concerns. The dissatisfaction which was mani- 
fested among some " original subscribers," was shown when 
the Council was first chosen ; and the objection made, was 
against the number of clergymen who were put in nomina- 
tion, and elected as members. At that time several 
subscribers announced their purpose not to pay their 
subscriptions ; and to this time they remain unpaid. The 
election of Chancellor took place four months afterwards ; 
he was chosen by precisely the same vote, and at the same 
meeting of the Council, at which Albert Gallatin was chosen 
President, Morgan Lewis Vice President, and John Delafield 

10 



74 

Secretary; nor, until they were so informed by the late 
Professors, did the Council never understand, that immediate- 
ly, or boon after the election of Chancellor took place, either 
" many individuals," or one individual of high standing and 
influence, withdrew^ from all connexion with the Institution ; 
or that on account of it, many, or even one of the original 
subscribers refused to pay their subscriptions. On the con- 
trary, the Council have occasion to know, that many of the 
most liberal contributors paid in their subscriptions with 
increased alacrity and promptitude, in consequence of his 
appointment to the Chancellorship. 

IV. The Professors state, (p. 12,) that "the first serious 
collision with the Chancellor took place in February, 1837;" 
that " immediately before leaving for Albany, he stated to 
the Faculty, that he left a su^cient amount due from rents on 
the building, to discharge all their arrears ; and that he had 
given directions to the Janitor of the University, to collect 
and pay them over. The Professors waited for some time, 
but received nothing, and heard nothing from the Janitor. 
Upon sending for the Janitor they learned, that about two 
hundred dollars had been collected, which the Chancellor 
had taken with him to Albany, and that less than a hundred 
remained to be selected. The arrears of the Professors 
amounted at this time to about #2000. This the Chancellor 
knew when he referred the Professors to the rents for their 
dues. The Professors at once felt, that every consideration 
obliged them to call upon Dr. M. for an explanation of a 
statement so palpably contrary to facts, and deceptive. The 
painful office was committed to the senior Professor, and 
immediately upon the return of the Chancellor was per- 
formed in a manner, at once respectful and firm, in the pre- 
sence of the Faculty. The answer was extremely vague 
and unsatisfactory. An explicit and full explanation was 
however promised, but has never been given ; and Dr. Ma- 
thews felt, that from that hour the confidence and respect of 
the present Faculty was lost for ever." It will be noticed 
that this statement in no way affects the Council, but they 
believe it a singular tissue of misrepresentations, and are 
informed by the Chancellor, that he did not state, that a suf- 
ficient amount was then due from rents on the building to dis- 
charge all the arrears due to the Professors. He stated, 
that there was a sufficient amount due from rents, and 
arrears of fees from students, to pay what was then due ; 



75 

and if the Professors will consult a letter, which the Chan- 
cellor addressed at the time to one of their number, it may 
throw some light on the question. In the next place, the 
statement as he made it was true, as is proved from the 
books of the Institution, which show the amount of dues 
from these two sources at the time. In reply to the asser- 
tion, that when they called upon the Chancellor for an expla- 
nation, it was promised, but has never been given ; the Chan- 
cellor well recollects, and so does at least one of the 
Professors, that the explanation was given, and the various 
items recited to the Professors, showing not only the amount 
due from the sources named, but the names of the individ- 
uals from whom it was to be collected. As to the flourish 
with which the Professors conclude their paragraph, that 
" Dr. Mathews felt from that hour, that the confidence and 
respect of the present Faculty was lost for ever" — Dr. M. 
must be allowed to speak for himself; and he assures the 
Council that he neither felt or thought any such thing. The 
whole transaction was a plain matter of fact, and until he 
saw their version of it in the pamphlet, he supposed the 
whole matter had been explained to their full satisfaction. 

It is with no little surprise that the Council find " the senior 
Professor," Mr. Tappan, sanctioning the statement which has 
been quoted. The Council are assured by one of the Profes- 
sors that after the explanation had been made, the senior Prof, 
made an apology to the Chancellor for their conduct upon the 
occasion referred to. They cannot have forgotten this acknow- 
ledgment, and which left the question of who was in the 
wrong, no longer in doubt. Good faith required that this 
part of the aflfair should have been stated in the Professors' 
pamphlet. No one can doubt why it was omitted. 

V. The Professors declare, (p. 18, Appendix,) " Prof. 
Mason states, that the Chancellor collected a large amount 
of the endowment from the donors without authority ; and 
a part he obtained through Professor Mason himself, assuring 
him, that as he received the money from him, and directly 
from the donors, he took care to have it adequately secured. 
The money was expended in finishing the Gothic chapel, 
and he for some time had not even a receipt to show for it, 
either from the Chancellor or the Treasurer." As the Pro- 
fessors here refer to Prof. Mason as their witness, he has 
been consulted ; and he pronounces their statement, both in 
regard to the alleged want of authority, and to the Chancel- 



76 

lor's saying the amount was adequately secured, to be whol- 
ly unwarranted and untrue. He is not the only witness to 
whom they have referred in the progress of this controversy, 
and with whom they have been found at variance.* 

VI. They state, (p. 16, Appendix,) that " no sooner had 
the appropriation of 86000 per annum been granted by the 
state, than the Chancellor endeavored to obtain from the 
finance committee, full $2000 of this sum to meet his private 
claims ; although the whole amount was insufficient to cover 
the arrears of the Professors." The truth in this matter is 
as follows. On various occasions, when the Professors 
were exceedingly clamorous as to their wants, and the Chan- 
cellor had reason to believe, that the interests of the Institu- 
tion were suffering by their complaints, he had advanced 
money for the relief of the Professors, and had given it spe- 
cifically for that purpose. Accordingly they had received 
it. On his return from Albany, he was himself in want of this 
money ; and as it had been paid the Professors to reheve 
them, at least in part, thus reducing the amount of their 
arrears ; both the Chancellor and the chairman of the finance 
committee, Mr. Butler, thought it no more than just that a 
portion of the grant of the state should be applied to refund 
the amount thus advanced ; and in this the Council believe 
every unprejudiced mind will concur. No just complaint 
could be made if the Chancellor had persisted in the claim, 
and the money had been repaid him. Had he not advanced 
it the Professors could not have received it, and they might 
have suffered increased inconvenience from the delay ; and 
yet when he was informed that if he urged the repayment from 
the money granted by the state, the wants of the Professors 
could not be satisfied, he relinquished the claim, and 
so informed the committee. The whole transaction, from 
beginning to end, was an act of generosity on his part for 
their benefit, and yet in the version they give of the affair 
the public have a sample of their gratitude. 

It may be answered to this, however, that the statement 
of the Professors, so far as it goes, is true. To this the 

* The money was received by the Chancellor with the assent of Professor 
Mason and the principal contributors to the endowment, to be appUed to the 
general purposes of the University, as funds were at that time greatly needed, 
under an arrangement to pay interest upon the amount, and ultimately to re- 
pay and invest the principal. The University stands now debited wiih the 
amount received, and every dollar which ever came to the hands of the Chan- 
cellor has been accounted for. 



77 

Council reply, that a part, and a necessary part, of the truth 
was withheld, which gives a false coloring to the whole mat- 
ter ; whereas if it had been fairly stated, no unjust inference 
would have been drawn. This is not the only instance in 
which the facts have been suppressed, to the prejudice of the 
Council and the Chancellor. It has occurred too often to 
be attributed to accident. The public will determine 
whether it proceeds from deliberate design. It is a maxim 
in morals as well as in law, that the suppression of truth, is 
equally criminal with the suggestion of falsehood. The Pro- 
fessors will do well to remember this. 

VII. In pp. 20, 21, they state, that the Chancellor 
" held within a few days after, (i. e. after the communication 
of the first paper from the Professors to the Committee on 
the Faculty of Science and Letters,) several interviews with 
members of the Committee and members of the Faculty, in 
which he avowed, that the paper placed him in a critical 
position, where a single step might ruin him. He offered to 
withdraw from all connexion with the University, except a 
very general one, such as presiding at commencements, if 
the Professors would withdraw the paper from the hands of 
the Committee." " When he found that the Professors were 
firm, instead of calHng for an investigation, as a man in the 
consciousness of his truth and integrity would be expected 
to do, he expressed a determination to resign outright." 
This is an utter misrepresentation of the Chancellor's con- 
duct, at this period of the controversy, as the Council are 
informed by him and others. It is indeed true, that when 
he was told of the communication made by the Professors 
to the Committee, it took him by surprise. As he was not 
conscious of having done any thing to merit such an at- 
tack, it surprised him to find that it had been made. He 
was surprised to find, that if the Professors had aught against 
him, they had neglected the divine rule which requires, " If 
thy brother oflfend, go and tell him his fault between thee and 
him alone." He did not conceal his surprise ; and foresee- 
ing, that there was great danger of an open collision between 
himself and these Professors, he felt anxious if possible to pre- 
vent it ; knowing the scandal it would occasion to the cause 
of religion, and the injury it might bring upon the Univer- 
sity. Thinking that it might tend to preserve peace, should 
he carry into effect the resolution which he had several times 
avowed to his friends, of being released from such an 



78 

amount of active duty as he had long rendered the Institu- 
tion, he proposed, that such an arrangement should be made. 
It was not met in the spirit which he had expected. At this 
time several of his medical advisers renewed their advice, 
often given, that he should take a respite from his labors by 
going abroad ; and he at once resolved to embrace it, and on 
doing so, to relinquish his office into the hands of the Coun- 
cil. As he informed his friends at the time, he had two 
reasons for doing this ; first, to set an example of what he 
conceived was the duty of every officer of the Institution on 
going abroad for his own convenience or benefit ; and in the 
next place, to set the Council at perfect liberty to put another 
man into the office of Chancellor, if under the circumstances 
which had then transpired, they should think the welfare 
of the University would be promoted by the change. In 
conformity to this determination the Chancellor afterwards 
acted. But when the communication from the Faculty was 
produced in the Council, he at once openly declared, that he 
would neither relinquish his office, nor leave the country, 
until the charges which the Professors had to produce 
agsinst him, had been heard, and he had been allowed to 
defend himself against them. From that time forward, every 
effort was made by the Chancellor to have the charges 
brought to an investigation. All his previous movements in 
the matter had been taken, with a view of preventing an 
explosion which has resulted so unfortunately to those who 
produced it ; and not either to prevent or to smother an 
investigation of his conduct. On the contrary he has again 
and again insisted, that since the Professors had volunteered 
to prosecute charges against him, they should be held to 
the ground which they had taken. In order to be ready to 
meet them at the earliest day, he not only relinquished his 
idea of going abroad, but contented himself to forego his 
usual jaunt into the country during the summer, in order to 
be at hand at any hour to appear before the Committee 
appointed to receive the charges, and to answer them as soon 
as they should be produced. To whose fault it is owing, 
that he never had the opportunity, the public already under- 
stand. In this connexion the Council would notice an 

Vlllth instance of false representation, and which shows 
how singularly regardless of truth these gentlemen are in their 
several statements. On p. 23, after alluding to the reception 



79 

of the letter from the Chancellor, and its reference to a 
Committee, they state, " the communication of the Faculty 
was then brouglit forward. The reading of it was objected 
to by several of Dr. Mathews's friends ; but the objection 
being overruled it was read, and referred to the same Com- 
mittee.^^ The production of the communication of the Fac- 
ulty, was not objected to by the friends of the Chancellor. 
It was his friends who earnestly called for it, after it had 
been hinted that such a communication existed ; and it was 
the friends of the Professors, who evinced reluctance to have 
it produced. The motion for its production was offered by 
J. L. Graham, Esq., and when at length it was produced, 
no withstanding the prolonged opposition of members who 
uniformly espoused the cause of the Professors, it produced a 
burst of surprise and indignation from all parts of the cham- 
ber, which cannot soon be forgotten — surprise and indigna- 
toin, that so much should have been made of a paper, and 
the Council thrown into such a ferment on account of it, and 
which after all, amounted to the grave information, that the 
learned gentlemen had lost their confidence in the Chancellor, 
and that in their opinion he did not possess the confidence of 
the community — a matter, in which the Council claim to 
have an opinion of their own, and which differs very widely 
from that of the Professors. 

IX. They declare, (p. 27,) that "their second paper 
was referred to a Committee, composed exclusively of the 
friends of the Chancellor" The truth is not so. When 
their second paper was referred, on motion made by the 
Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Milnor, whose predilections 
in this controversy are quite sufficiently known, was added 
to the Committee; and when he declined serving, Mr. 
Kelly, an equally strenuous advocate of the Professors, was 
put in his room. The Council should not omit to notice 
here, that some of the members of the Council who espoused 
the cause of the Professors, on this occasion were the loudest 
in their professions of regard for, and apparently desirous of 
protecting, the character of the Chancellor. Do the Pro- 
fessors mean to say that these professions were not honest 
and sincere ? 

X. They state, (p. 47,) that " the resolution declaring 
them by name to be removed, was passed by a vote of 
nineteen members, several of whom had been recently 
elected, and were acknowlegded to have been elected, for 



80 

the purpose of obtaining this majority." This declaration, 
as to the motives of the Council in filling up their vacancies, the 
Council pronounce to be vv^holly unfounded, and as such it can- 
not fail to be duly appreciated. It is alike an insult to truth, 
and to the gentlemen against whom it is aimed. Besides, 
there were members who had generally been regarded as 
friendly to the Professors, and who voted for the Resolution, 
when it was finally passed. 

XI. Another misrepresentation is found, (pp. 22. 23, 
Appendix,) relating to the retrenchment effected by the late 
organization. The Professors, there state, that " as the re-or- 
ganization will require the labor of each Professor three 
hours each day, from this they of course infer that each Pro- 
fessor will teach three classes." This inference is like too 
many others, which the gentlemen have seen fit to draw in 
the progress of this controversy. It is utterly unwarranted. 
Each Professor does not teach three classes as the Institution 
is now organized ; and of course their whole argument, 
tending to show that the old organization was more economi- 
cal, falls to the ground, and with it their " demonstration," 
that " retrenchment was not the motive, but i\\Q pretext mere- 
ly for the re -organization." It is to be supposed the Council 
are best acquainted with the results actually accruing from 
the plan on which the Institution is now conducted, and they 
find that it produces an annual saving of more than ^3000.* 
The Council have already shown that this retrenchment 
was indispensable ; and had it been delayed, the lapse of every 
month would have made it more and more imperative. It 
was adopted when the Institution was running in debt more 
than ^2600 annually, without any means of paying it, and is 
found to produce a saving of the sum already mentioned. 

XII. There is still one more instance of disregard of 
truth, so gross that the Council cannot in justice to them- 
selves pass it unnoticed. In regard to the examination of 
candidates for admission, the Professors, at p. 41, after sta- 
ting that their chairs had been declared vacant, say, " nomi- 
nations had already been made plentifully, but elections there 
were none ; and the Professorships of a University went a 
begging. The next stated meeting would occur on Thurs- 
day Sept. 27th, at 5 P. M. On the same day, at 10 A. M., 
by the Chancellor's advertisement, candidates were to be 

* Vide Exposition pp. 16 — 22, Retrenchment Report. 



81 

examined for admission in the small chapel. The examina- 
tion had to take place before the election of Professors. 
Truly this is an age fruitful in expedients. The difficulty- 
was avoided by the appointment of au Examining Commitee, 
composed of General Tallmadge, W. W. Chester, Thomas 
Suffern, John Lorimer Graham, and Obadiah Holmes, Esqrs., 
who were, it is to be supposed, to examine in the Latin and 
Greek Classics, or to see that this work, if committed to 
others, was done learnedly and critically." It required no 
ordinary exercise of ingenuity to comprise in so small a 
space so much of misrepresentation. In the first place, 
there never has been a want of candidates of the first re- 
spectability and the highest attainments for the vacant Pro- 
fessorships. Instead of the professorships going " a begging," 
the difficulty has been among so many proper persons 
to make selections. The anxiety shown by the late Pro- 
fessors to retain, and their recent movement to regain the 
places from which their own misconduct removed them, suffi- 
ciently prove how desirable the stations are. They are now 
filied, and by gentlemen of talents and learning. In the 
next place, the gentlemen above named were never appoint- 
ed a committee to examine, or superintend the examination 
of candidates. This duty was confided to another commit- 
tee. They were appointed to be present at the time of the 
examination, in order to prevent any collisions or tumult 
which might occur in consequence of the interference of the 
late Professors, who had throughout evinced a spirit of insub- 
ordination, which the Council had reason to fear, would result 
in serious consequences upon that occasion. They had de- 
clared their determination to attend — ^they well knew they 
had been dismissed, and that their presence would be intru- 
sive — and they did appear and take possession of the small 
chapel. This committee and the Chancellor, desirous of 
preventing a scene, which from the conduct of the Profes- 
sors they did not doubt would be disreputable to them, and 
injurious to the institution, did retire to the Chancellor's 
apartment, where the examinations were conducted by the 
persons elected for that purpose. Among these were Pro- 
fessors Da Ponte, Mason and Johnson. The Council make 
this disclosure with no pleasure. It places the conduct of 
the Professors in so odious a light, that the bare recital is 
painful. That they should have been so lost to a sense of 
duty and their own self-respect, is a melancholy commentary 

11 



82 

upon the frailty of human nature. They have however 
courted the exposure and must abide the consequences. 

The Council would feel that they were trifling with the 
patience of the public, as well as with their own time and 
their more important duties, if they were to follow out and 
expose, all the misstatements which are to be found in the 
pamphlet of the Professors. Besides those already pointed 
out, there are others in abundance, to occupy the attention 
of those who may see fit to examine them ; as, when the 
pamphlet speaks of the number of Professors who have re- 
signed from the commencement of the Institution and the 
causes which led to it — of the number of Professors and 
students with which the present term opened, &;c. &c. 

But before concluding this review, the Council would 
call the attention of the public to two other allegations which 
" the professors" have contrived to work up into a shape, 
that renders it proper for the Council to notice and expose 
them. 

The first of these relates to what they have termed " spu- 
rious scholarships," and which they have spread upon their 
pamphlet at much length. The whole of this matter can be 
very plainly stated, and very easily understood ; and the 
transaction, from beginning to end, will be found perfectly 
consistent with truth and uprightness. The following is the 
result of an investigation into the matter, in pursuance of the 
request of the Chancellor made some time since.* 

When the first subscriptions to the University were made 
it was considered by the friends of the Institution to be an 
important object to have scholarships endowed, and held 
in the names of the pastors of different churches. The 
measure was again and again discussed in the committee on 
subscriptions ; and the Chancellor was assured from various 
quarters, that he should receive aid for canying it into 
effect, wherever such foundations might be thought most 
desirable, and especially in churches which would make 
some effort towards the object themselves. It is impossible 
after the lapse of seven or eight years, to ascertain by whose 
authority each of the clergymen whose names were set 
down for scholarships, was so reported and entered upon 
the subscription list ; this is expressly conceded by " A 
Shareholder," who is so often quoted by the Professors ; but 

* Vide Exposition, p. 40. 



83 

the Chancellor believes that several of them were reported 
by himself, as it was a measure in which he took great inte- 
rest. Several of these were entered as " prospective scho- 
larships," that is, scholarships which were to be paid for by 
annual instalments of one huudred dollars each, agreeably 
to a resolution of the Council for that purpose. 

According to the original terms of subscription, no sub- 
scription was binding, unless the sum of #100,000 was 
subscribed or secured before the first of August, 1830 ; and 
when the meeting was held in the latter part of July, in that 
year, to ascertain what amount of the $100,000, had been 
reached by the subscriptions then obtained, objections were 
raised against counting these scholarships as part of the re- 
quired sum. To remove all question on the subject, and to 
secure the great object of establishing the Institution, by 
rendering the subscriptions obligatory, Dr. Mathews then 
pledged himself, that the whole amount of the scholarships 
to which exceptions had been raised should be paid into the 
treasury — a pledge which, as the books of the Institution 
show, he has more than redeemed ; and the reason why the 
amount thus contributed through his means, now stands in 
the names of other persons than those originally entered on 
the subscription list, is as follows : — 

Not long after the subscription of $100,000 was declared 
to be complete, several members of the Council became ap- 
prehensive that the price of the scholarships had been placed 
too low, and that if their number should be increased at the 
rate then fixed, the Institution might be involved in embar- 
rassment. To prevent this evil, a resolution was passed 
which is in the words following : " Resolved, that it is not 
expedient at this time, nor until the actual expense of a clas- 
sical and thorough education shall have been ascertained by 
experience, to open anew, subscriptions on terms that shall 
increase the number of free scholarships beyond that already 
established or authorized." When the proposition was first 
suggested, the expediency of adopting it was questioned by 
several members of the Council, and among others by Dr. 
Mathews. The chief labor of obtaining subscriptions had 
fallen upon him ; he had found, too, by experience, that he 
was most successful in obtaining subscribers, when they 
were allowed to subscribe for scholarships ; and he appre- 
hended at the time, that, should the resolution be passed, it 
might hinder his success in redeeming the pledge 'which he 



84 

had previously given, respecting the amount subscribed un- 
der the scholarships to which objections had been made. 
To this it was replied, that these scholarships might be 
transferred, such being the terms of subscription ; and that 
although the number of scholarships then subscribed for, 
could not be increased until the farther action of the Council, 
if he should find it easier or more practicable to bring the 
amount into the treasury from other subscribers, no objection 
could be made to it. With this understanding, he concurred 
in the proposed resolution ; and when he found that the 
scholarships could not be so promptly filled up in the various 
churches, he applied to other sources, and was eminently 
successful ; leaving it to time, and the future action of the 
Council to decide, how far it would be desirable to carry out 
the proposed foundation of scholarships, to be held in the 
names of the pastors of the different congregations. 

Such is a plain statement of this matter, about which so 
much clamor has been raised. It was supposed that the whole 
transaction was well understood and fully approved at the 
time. It subjected the University to no loss, as the amount 
originally pledged to the Institution has long since been paid 
into the treasury. It required no payments from the hands 
of those who were not willing to contribute ; and it removed 
an objection which at one time threatened the validity of all 
the subscriptions which had been made. It left the Council 
at liberty to extend the number of scholarships which 
might be founded, should it subsequently believe that schol- 
arships on behalf of the various churches in the city would 
be found of essential advantage to the Institution. It may 
here be added that, the rights and privileges of the par- 
ties interested in these scholarships are adjusted by the 
statutes of the University. By these, the person in whose 
name the scholarship stands is entitled to nominate a student 
who may attend the ordinary course of undergraduate in- 
struction free of charge ; while the persons who paid the 
amount necessary to create the foundation, are authorized to 
vote at the elections and to have a deduction of three per 
cent from tuition fees. The person in whose name the scho- 
larship stands, unless he actually engaged to pay the money 
himself, was never considered strictly as a subscriber to the 
Institution, but as one for whom a scholarship was created by 
another. Any number of persons might unite to v found a 
scholarship to be held in the name of any person whom they 



85 

might designate, and they would respectively and according 
to the amount contributed by each, be authorized to exer- 
cise the rights already mentioned. No pecuniary respon- 
sibility whatever was incurred by those in whose names 
these scholarships stood. On the contrary a privilege of a 
beneficial character was bestowed upon them. 

And yet this transaction, plain and free from censure 
as it is, and which should be esteemed an act of disinterest- 
edness and devotion to the cause of learning on the part of 
the Chancellor, which entitles him to the highest praise, the 
Professors and some of their friends have assailed with a spirit 
and in terms which are equally at variance with good taste 
and right feeling. The great object of the Chancellor in his 
desire for the endowment of scholarships to be held in the 
names of pastors of churches, w^as to provide permanent 
foundations for the education of young men who, possessing 
talent and high moral worth, are yet in circumstances so strait- 
ened as to render the acquisition of a liberal education a mat- 
ter of extreme difficulty to them and their friends. He had 
frequently found occasion to observe that young men who are 
natives of the city, and who here can live in the bosom of 
their own famihes, can be carried forward in their studies 
with much more economy when allowed to live at home,- 
than when sent abroad to even our cheapest colleges, if pro- 
vision can be made to furnish them tuition free of expense. 
Indeed, unless the Council are greatly misinformed, many 
young men of sincere piety and promising talents, who had 
longed to press forward into the Christian ministry, have 
been prevented simply by the impossibility, or at least in- 
expediency of going from home in order to obtain their edu- 
cation. With these facts before him, it is not surprising that 
the Chancellor and those who acted with him in this thing, 
should have been desirous to create a permanent provision 
for the education of such youth in the University ; thus ena- 
bhng them to enjoy the privileges of their own home, and to 
make their influence felt in the various institutions of our 
city, in which experience has shown the example of our 
pious youth to be so superlatively important. 

The only remaining allegations to which the Council will 
allude, are those respecting the wanton charge of pecuniary 
defalcation, which has been in various ways suggested and 
surmised respecting the Chancellor. On this point they had 
felt it their duty to speak explicitly ; and they had done so, 



86 

declaring that nothing of the kind had ever appeared in his 
accounts, and that the surmise was considered equally wicked 
and unfounded; The " Shareholder" already mentioned, 
whose identity is well understood, has seen fit, however, by 
a publication in one of the daily papers, to do what he could 
to fasten the charge upon the Chancellor ; and the Profes- 
sors have now endorsed his attack, declaring that his state- 
ments are of unquestionable authority. These statements are 
headed, " Facts opposed to assertions," and the first class of 
" facts" to which he alludes is as follows : 

" Instruction was begun in the University, October 1, 1832. 

** 'September 3, 1833, the Chancellor in a report to the 
Council, states the tuition fees already received from students 
to be 84,765. 

" The Finance Committee, in their report presented June 
5, 1838, find in the Chancellor's accounts for the year termi- 
nating Oct. 1, 1833, the following amount of tuition fees, 
acknowledged and accounted for, viz : 

"Tuition fees received, . . $4,470 00 

" Repaid to the Professor of Spanish, &c. 527 50 



" Net receipts for the year, . . $3,942 50 
which is $822 50 less than the amount reported by the 
Chancellor, as actually received up to Sept. 3, 1833, as above 
stated." (See p. 1 1, Appendix.) Now if this statement means 
any thing appertaining to the main question, it means that 
the Chancellor is shown by it to be a defaulter to the amount 
of $822 -foV But what will any honest man conclude as to 
the motives of the "Shareholder" in this distorted and false 
exhibit, when he is informed of the following facts respect- 
ing it ? 

FirsL the sum of $4,765 stated as tuition fees already 
received from students, on Sept 3d, 1833, was not reported 
hy the Chancellor to the Council, as money then received hy 
him, but it was reported hy a Committee of the Council on 
that date, as money then in the Treasury, and paid into it by 
the students through the Chancellor, as may be seen by the 
minutes. 

Secondly, in the Chancellor's accounts for the year ter- 
minating Oct. 1st, 1833, he enters tuition fees as follows : 
$4,470, this being the amount of fees paid by the students on 
their own behalf, or by their parents or guardians for them ; 
and in addition to this amount, he enters $800, as fees paid 



87 

by benevolent individuals, for poor and pious students, for 
whom provision had not been made, by placing them on the 
foundation of scholarships. He has thus, as w^ill be seen, 
credited the University, and charged himself, for the year 
ending Oct. 1st, 1833, not with $822 {^q\ less than was re- 
ported as actually received up to the previous Sept. 3d, but 
with i505 more, the difference having been received in the 
interval. 

The "Shareholder" next states, "February 4th, 1834 — 
The Chancellor presented to the Council a detailed report 
of the state of the institution, which is recorded at length in 
their minutes. In this report he states, that the amount of tu- 
ition paid and payable for the then current year, was $7,177, 
to which he added, the estimated amount to be received by 
the Professors of Spanish, &c., $2000 or more, making the 
whole income from tuition that year, from $9,000 to $10,000. 
The Finance Committee, in their late report above named 
find, that the amount actually accounted for as received for 
tuition during the year ending Oct. 1st, 1834, exclusive of the 
amount received by the Professors of Spanish, &c., was only 
$5,542,41 ; which is $1,634,59 less than the Chancellor 
reported as paid and payable in February of that year." 

It should be observed, that the amount of tuition here 
stated by the Chancellor, was "the amount paid or payable" 
Now a merchant will well understand the difference, between 
money actually paid and payable ; and the difference, be- 
tween the amount reported by the Chancellor, as paid and 
payable in the beginning of February, and the amount actu- 
ally received during the year ending Oct. 1st, 1834, has been 
again and again explained by the Chancellor and the differ- 
ent members of the Council.— Several of the students who, 
in the beginning of February, 1834, were debited with $80, 
as due to the Institution, before the close of the year, were 
placed on free scholarships by different gentlemen who had 
created the foundations. These students were accordingly 
discharged from the payment of the tuition fees, with which 
they stood debited on the first of the previous February ; and 
yet the " Shareholder" would represent, that the difference be- 
tween the $7,177, reported in February, as "paid and pay- 
able," during the year, and §5542 jVb? the actual receipts at 
the close of the year, as a defalcation in the accounts of the 
Chancellor — a balance not accounted for. 

The " Shareholder" further states, " In the autumn of 



88 



1837, the Chancellor, in a report to the Council, stated the 

tuition fees for the current year, to be . . $8,230 

Rents for the same year . . . 6,614 



$14,844 



The Finance Committee in their report 
above-named, state the actual amount of 
receipts accounted for during the same 
year for tuition, to be . . . . $5,239 

For rents . . . . . 5,650 10,889 



Difference .... $3,955 

Implying again, that the difference was a balance not ac- 
counted for by the Chancellor in his accounts, and showing 
a defalcation to that amount. In reply to this, the Council 
state in the first place, that during the whole of this year, 
the Chancellor did not receive either the rents or the tuition 
fees. In consequence of his repeated and earnest solicita- 
tions on the subject, he had been released from that duty the 
year previous. Of course if there is a defalcation by any 
one, it is not chargeable upon him. In the second place, the 
statement of tuition fees and rents for this year, made in the 
autumn of 1837, was not made by the Chancellor, but by 
the Finance Committee, as the minutes of the Council show ; 
and the tuition fees were estimated at the sum named, in- 
cluding the interest on the scholarships at the time occupied 
by students, in order to show the amount of income brought 
to the Institution, by the labors of its Professors. And yet, 
notwithstanding that neither rents nor tuition fees passed 
through the Chancellors hands ; and although the report 
above referred to, did not come from him, but from the Fi- 
nance Committee — facts of which the Professors, and their 
friend the " Shareholder" could not be ignorant, — they still 
charge the Chancellor with being a defaulter this year in the 
amount of $3,955. Can honest men have any but one 
opinion respecting conduct so profligate and malignant ? 

The Council will notice one other declaration of the 
" Shareholder," endorsed as it is by the Professors. He 
states, " In most of the estimates and reports oT the Chan- 
cellor concerning tuition fees, &c., the amounts are stated 
in gross sums, without memorandums." This is utterly un- 
true. In every account which the Chancellor has kept with 
the University, he has specified the students who paid tuition 



89 

fees, and the names of subscribers who paid subscriptions, 
with the most careful minuteness and accuracy ; and these 
documents are now on hand, among the papers belonging to 
the Treasury. 

As this is a subject upon which the public justly mani- 
fest great sensibihty, and in relation to which the Council 
desire to speak explicitly, they again declare that the Chan- 
cellor, so far from being a defaulter to the funds of the Uni- 
versity, is now, and has long been, one of the largest credi- 
tors of the Institution. There has never been a time when 
the Council were dissatisfied with his receipts or doubted the 
integrity of his accountings. And as already remarked, the 
affairs of the Institution have always been so conducted, that 
no defalcation could escape detection, and none has ever 
occurred. The base and unfounded rumors against the 
Chancellor upon this subject, are the offspring of envy, ambi- 
tion and interest, and cannot fail to recoil upon those who 
have been instrumental in their invention and circulation. 

The Council will not further follow the late Professors, 
in exposing their course of tergivisation and malevo- 
lence. The catalogue of their offences is even now too 
large. In no event can they essentially harm those who 
have been selected as the objects of their attacks. The origi- 
nal purity of intention which the Council claimed for them- 
selves in all their doings concerninsr the Institution and tho 
late Professors, is established and confirmed. The charges 
against the Chancellor, so far as the late Professors have 
made them tangible, have been successfully met and refuted 
and his perfect innocence proved. Instead of being a crimi- 
nal and unworthy of confidence, he has been shown to be 
the early and steadfast friend of the Institution, and the ob- 
ject of a conspiracy as base in its designs as it has been un- 
successful in its termination. The " poisoned chalice" 
which they secretly prepared for him, has been " commended 
to their own lips." It has been a deep and bitter draught. 
It is hoped they will profit by the lesson, and if ever again 
connected with a literary institution, that they will avoid com- 
binations against their superiors in office and authority. 

It is doulDtless known to the public that the pamphlet of 
the late Professors was issued a few days prior to the late 
election to supply vacancies in the Council. It was mani- 
festly intended to have an effect upon that election. It was 
probably hoped that it would decide its character. It was 



90 

part of a plan of operations to change the members of the 
Council in such a manner as to create a majority friendly to 
the late Professors. They were very active to produce this 
result, and some of them, and many of their friends were in- 
dustriously engaged in soliciting votes and procuring proxies. 
Their operations were carried on in a secret and stealthy 
manner, and were concealed from the Chancellor and the 
members of the Council, until a few days before the election 
took place. What was wanting in the equity and justice of 
their cause they supposed could be made up in policy and 
contrivance — in those arts which while they characterize a 
class of men, at the same time degrade them. But all these 
efforts proved of no avail. The shareholders who had from 
the beginning been the witnesses of the course of the late 
Professors, who were impartial and unbiassed, who had 
nothing in view but the good of the Institution ; in dis- 
regard of the prejudices which the late Professors, by their 
last publication, hoped to excite, came manfully forward and 
again placed in the Council the very men at whose hands the 
late Professors assert they have received nothing but injus- 
tice and outrage. Thus have those most interested in the 
University sustained and sanctioned the course pursued in 
regard to these Professors. They were not content with a 
condemnation by the Council. They appealed to the public 
and they have heard and will not soon forget its response. 
Again they appealed to the shareholders and their emphatic 
condemnation has been added to the already accumulated 
weight of judgment against their conduct and proceedings. 
It is hoped that they will be satisfied with this three-fold de- 
cision against them. 

It may be useful, in order to ascertain the motives by 
which the late Professors were actuated in the attempt to 
control this election, and to contrast them with their profes- 
sions, to enquire what their friends, if they had been elected, 
intended to do, and what would have been their course of 
policy and government. Were they designed to quiet and 
harmonize the Institution and promote its welfare, or to plunge 
it deeper and deeper in difficulty and embarrassment ? The 
late Professors had been displaced more than two months, 
and new ones had been elected in their places and were en- 
gaged in the ordinary coui-se of undergraduate instruction. 
Within the University and its various faculties the utmost 
harmony prevailed ; and in the Council its gentle reign 



91 

had been happily begun and all around was bright with the 
promise of concord. If the friends of the late Professors had 
been elected, the most they could have done would have 
been to remove the new Professors and restore their prede- 
cessors. And was this their intention ? And " under the 
malign auspices of such a head" as the Chancellor, would 
they consent to take office even for a temporary period ? Or 
did they design forthwith to remove the Chancellor and then 
occupy the places of Professors, and this too in an Institution 
which they declare is tottering to its downfall ? If they 
wished to be reinstated in their Professorships, they designed 
gross injustice to their successors ; and at the same time gave 
the strongest evidence that their expressions of fear for the 
Institution were unfounded and hypocritical. If they inten- 
ded to effect the removal of the Chancellor and did not wish 
again to be in connexion with the University, they were actu- 
ated by hatred and revenge. The Council do not doubt 
that a discerning public will place a just estimate upon all 
these motives, and at once perceive that none of them can be 
reconciled with a regard for the prosperity and welfare of 
the University, or with those principles which distinguish the 
upright and just. 

On a review of the Vv^hole, the question naturally arises, 
What can be the object of the late Professors in the course 
they are pursuing ? With a zeal worthy of a better cause, 
they have for some time past labored to destroy the Univer- 
sity. They have evinced an industry in their efforts against 
it, which they never showed in its behalf, when acting under 
its authority, and receiving its pay. They have published it 
to the world as bankrupt, and the whole establishment as on 
the eve of dissolution. They have assailed the Council in 
language so coarse as to be almost scurrillous, declaring tliat 
*'the President and his co-adjutors have come with insult, 
sacrilege, and violence, where men of all nations and ages 
are used to come with veneration, love and honoring expres- 
sions ;" that " with small literary pretensions or experience 
themselves, they have conspired against literature and 
science, against common sense and law." They add with 
unwonted pathos, " The venerable forms of old science and 
philosophy have trembled under their grasp, and the gentle 
muses are scared away by their threatening looks and voices." 
The great burthen of their song, however, for months and 
months, has been against the Chancellor, as a man neither 



92 

deserving nor possessing public confidence, as to talents, in- 
tegrity, or truth. 

But still the University goes on, its friends increasing and 
more devoted than ever ; its embarrassments, growing in 
no small degree out of the conduct of its former Professors, 
gradually passing away ; and every branch of instruction 
which it has hitherto established, continued with entire 
satisfaction to its patrons, and full efficiency among its pupils. 
Perhaps these gentlemen had pursuaded themselvesj as has 
been affirmed concerning them by one of their friends, that 
they were the University. It may have been unpleasant to 
them to be undeceived in this thing. Events have shown, 
that so far from being the University, they were not so very 
important parts of the Institution as to render their connexion 
with it essentia] either to its existence or its welfare. 

The law which has been established by usage and cus- 
tom in our literary institutions is, that when Professors are 
dissatisfied with the deliberate enactments of the board 
which has employed them, they either submit or resign. But 
such a struggle as these Professors have made to hold on to 
their places at all hazards, and such efforts as they have 
made against the authority and usefulness of the men to 
whom it belonged to decide what the welfare of the Institu- 
tion demanded, are a new thing under the sun, in the history 
of our colleges and universities. Their general prevalence 
would be a death-blow to education. 

The question recurs, what object can the Professors 
have in the course they are pursuing ? They cannot hope 
that their attacks will enable them to regain their seats in 
the Institution ; and it is equally obvious that their course is 
far from gaining them friends in the eyes of the public. 
Much of their bitter feeling may have arisen from the mor- 
tification of their repeated defeats. In this way we may ac- 
count for the virulence shown towards members of the 
Council who were the means of preventing scenes of riot 
and confusion in the building at the opening of the term ; and 
which it is but too obvious the late Professors had expected 
to witness, if they did not desire to produce. But in view 
of their whole course in this controversy, must not every 
one be struck with the violence of their personal hostility to 
the Chancellor and his friends ? 

The situation of this officer has from the first, encom- 
passed him with difficulties and responsibilities which were 



93 

peculiarly trying, and at the view of which many would 
have been appalled. The creation as well as the govern- 
ment of the University, was the work required at his hands ; 
and in the fulfilment of it he was called not only to digest 
and methodize the great principles on which the Institution 
is founded, to select and organize the various Faculties, but 
also in a great degree to provide the funds, and direct even 
the construction of the building. From much of this labor 
he will hereafter be relieved by measures which the Council 
are now about to adopt, giving to each Faculty its own 
Head, and distributing different interests of the Institution 
to the care of distinct committees and officers. But while 
this multiplicity of cares lay upon him, it is obvious that he 
was exposed to collisions and misrepresentations which were 
equally trying to his energies and his patience. Especially 
under these circumstances, the late Professors should have 
been the last men to join in such attacks upon the Chancel- 
lor. 

The Council know it to be a fact that every one of them 
was more or less indebted for a place in the Institution to 
his kindness towards them. As his friends have remarked 
to him at times, he brought some of them forward for ap- 
pointment when they had much more need of the University, 
than the University of them. And how far he has subjected 
himself to great inconvenience to sustain them after they be- 
came Professors, the Council have had frequent occasion to 
observe and to know. Common gratitude, therefore, should 
have led these gentlemen to a very different course from that 
which they have pursued. What, then, it may be asked, has 
led them to such hostility ? The Council fully believe that 
it is owing to that fearless discharge of his duty which has 
uniformly distinguished him as the Head of the Institution. 
This led him in the winter of 1837, into colHsion with one of 
their number, Professor Proudfit, who has figured so con- 
spicuously in the late efforts against the Institution ; which 
the Council have reason to believe was never forgotten, and 
from which at the time evil was apprehended by those who 
knew the temper of the man. On the return of the Chan- 
cellor from Albany that season he found that this Professor 
had made arrangements for going to Europe ; and had en- 
gaged as his substitute a young gentleman to whom the 
Chancellor felt personally very friendly, but whose services, 
as matters then stood, were not likely to give satisfaction in 



94 

the Institution. This arrangement had been made upon 
terms which allowed a very small compensation to the substi- 
tute, and left nearly the whole of the Professor's salary to 
himself. It had not met with the official sanction of the 
Council,and the whole plan was producing disturbance. On 
the Chancellor's return, a meeting of the Council was called, 
at which permission was given to Prof. Proudfit to make his 
proposed visit to Europe ; and a committee was appointed to 
engage a suitable person to give instruction in Professor 
Proudfit's place during his absence, and to allow him a suita- 
ble compensation out of the Professor's salary. Professor 
Goodwin, formerly of Bristol college, was named to the 
committee, and the Chancellor was requested to accompany 
Dr. Milnor to Bristol, in order to ascertain whether Prof. 
Goodwin could be obtained. Prof. Proudfit at once ex- 
pressed his desire to go on, and either conduct the negotia- 
tion with Prof. Goodwin or aid in it. This was overruled 
by the committee ; when he waited upon one or more 
members of it, and requested that Dr. Milnor and the 
Chancellor might be instructed to allow Prof. Goodwin a 
limited sum as compensation for his services. The Chan- 
cellor at once refused to be so instructed ; stating at the same 
time that while he was willing to befriend Prof. Proudfit in 
the affair, his first object would be to secure a suitable man 
for the benefit of the University ; and that if Prof. Goodwin 
would accept of the place, he would not consent to demean 
himself or offend Prof. G. by efforts to cheapen him down 
to the lowest dollar. The result was that Prof Goodwin 
was engaged at the rate of $1,400 per annum, leaving $400 
to Prof. Proudfit notwithstanding his absence. It was known 
at the time that Prof. Proudfit was not entirely satisfied with 
the arrangement ; but it was supposed that he had yielded to 
it, and so the matter was generally understood when he left 
the country. Upon his return, however, he objected to the 
payment of the sum to Prof. Goodwin on which the com- 
mittee had agreed, and which Prof G. had expected to re- 
ceive for his services. Surprised and indignant at such con- 
duct, the committee enforced the original agreement, no 
member expressing stronger censure of the course taken by 
Prof. Proudfit than Dr. Milnor. Knowing the great sensitive- 
ness of this professor on such subjects, the Chancellor had 
wished to avoid taking any active agency in the settlement of 
the account, and to leave the matter chiefly to his associates in 



95 

the committee. It was still obvious, however, that he was the 
man chiefly blamed by the malcontent Professor, whose 
main object evidently was to have his place supplied during 
his absence on the cheapest terms possible, whatever might 
be the result to the Institution. How far the feelings then 
generated towards the Chancellor may have influenced the 
gentleman in the course he has since pursued, it must be left 
to impartial men to decide. 

It will be seen that this transaction though apparently 
trivial, involved a great principle. The Professor assumed 
the right to supply at any price and by any person he chose, 
a temporary vacancy caused by his absence, and in the 
meantime to receive his usual salary. To sanction such a 
procedure would have been a derehction of duty on the part 
of the Council, and an example of most evil tendency. It 
was successfully resisted by the Council and the Chancellor ; 
and with other causes, has doubtless contributed to the un- 
usual hostility which the Professor alluded to has so often 
exhibited. 

The Council had wished in the present state of things, to 
avoid all reference to the manner in which the late Profes- 
sors discharged their duties in the institution. But the gen- 
tlemen have so repeatedly boasted that no fault was found 
with them as to their ability and fidelity, the Council are im- 
pelled, in justice to themselves, to say that such is not the 
fact. Repeated complaints have been made by parents 
respecting some of these gentlemen. Within the last year, 
the Rev. Dr. Milnor made open complaint in the Council 
against Professor Proudfit for neglect of duty ; and it is well 
known that this Professor was so often absent from his post 
during the early part of last term, leaving his classes without 
provision for their instruction while he was taking short jaunts 
out of the city, that the President of the Council and another 
influential member intimated their purpose to move for his 
dismission if he should persist in such a course of neglect. 

The disposition of these Professors to travel beyond their 
sphere, and which has been so obvious to the public eye in 
this controversy, is not a thing of recent occurrence. For 
years past they have meddled with concerns of the Institu- 
tion that did not appertain to them, both to the neglect of 
their appropriate duties and the annoyance of the Council. 
There were other facts, too, which spoke very decisively 
in this matter. There was a falling off in the number of the 




020 773 698 



90 

students belonging to the classes as they advanced from year 
to year in the undergraduate course, which could be ac- 
counted for only on the supposition that there was a want of 
adequate instruction and attention on the part of the Profes- 
sors. 

The general belief in the Council was, and still is, that as 
the Institution was then organized, and as the Professors 
were then conducting their departments, they had not enough 
to do ; and that if they were required to do more they 
would do it better — their minds being thus stimulated and 
centred upon their appropriate duties. The Council have 
reason to believe that they neither mistook the case nor the 
remedy which it required ; for the condition of the Institu- 
tion is greatly improved since the late changes were made. 
Such might have been the result in the hands of those of the 
late Professors, whom it was the original purpose of the 
Council to retain, had they acquiesced in the changes the 
Council deemed necessary, and had they entered upon their 
work though a little increased, with heartiness and good 
will ; for the Council would here repeat what they have 
stated before, that when they first contemplated the plan of 
retrenchment, it was not their intention to bring a single new 
Professor into the Institution ; and it was not until repeated 
efforts had been made to bring the late Professors to ac 
quiesce in the necessary reduction of their number, and they 
had so resisted the scheme as to place themselves in open 
opposition both to the views and authority of the Council, 
that they felt themselves under the necessity of filling the 
places by the appointment of new ofhcers. 

Next to the pain of seeing such misrepresentations as the 
late publication of these Professors contains, is the pain of 
exposing them. Nothing but a regard to the mterests of 
learning as committed to their care could have induced the 
Council to perform so unpleasant a labor. It is time these 
gentlemen shonld bethink themselves, and reflect upon the 
mischief to the cause of religion and education resulting 
from the unhappy course they have seen fit to pursue. 
By order of the Council, 

JAMES TALLMADGE, President 



LIBRARY OF 



CONGRESS 




020 773 698 



